The Taming of the Ninja
by Tairako
Summary: [AU] A remix of Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You, with Yuffie as the shrew, Leon as the 'tamer,' and Sora as the guy who just wants to go out with the girl of his dreams. [Squffie, Sokairi, and Clorith]
1. It's Hard Being the New Kid

  
DISCLAIMER: I OWN... none of this. Not even the plot (le gasp!) except for certain things I changed to make it all fit together better. If anyone'd like to give me Squall, though, I wouldn't say no. Or Cid. Same thing applies.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I have _no_ idea where this came from, but it amuses me to no end XD I watched the movie last night with a friend of mine, and I was listening to the soundtrack today when this just popped into my mind and I began giggling my head off. It was just too perfect to ignore.   
This is based off both _Taming of the Shrew_ by the inestimable William Shakespeare and the much more recent movie _10 Things I Hate About You_. No, there is no high school in this fic, which is why it's based on both and not just the movie, but I think it's gonna end up following the movie more.   
This is oh so most definitely AU, so the pasts have been changed from those in the game, but I've tried to stick with the personalities in the game (except for some tinkering with Cloud, but I've got this whole theory on him I don't want to get into now). I've monkeyed with the ages because originally I _was_ going to try and do it in a school, but it just didn't want to be done that way, so I figured out something else I like better. Though the ages'll all come out later, just for reference, here they are: Sora and Kairi are both sixteen, Riku and Yuffie are seventeen, Cloud and Aerith are eighteen, and Squall is nineteen. Cid is... Cid XD Probably in his forties.   
As for the rest, just sit back, and enjoy! Ja!   
(Soundtrack: _10 Things I Hate About You_ soundtrack, especially the first half of the CD.)   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
"Bye, Mom! I'll be back later!" the spiky-headed sixteen-year-old called over his shoulder as he dashed out of the new home, the door closing in his wake. He was bound and determined to explore this new place… whatever it was like.   
Oh first glance, Traverse Town looked much more quaint than his former home on the Destiny Isles; there were cobblestones instead of paving, it looked like the streetlights were still gas lamps, and everything was a lot taller than he was used to, as if homes were built on top of each other rather than one by one. _Well, they are_ Sora reminded himself; apartments were the rule in this town, rather than the houses he was used to. Though fortunately the apartments were nice and large; otherwise, his parents might drive him completely insane. On second glance, the quaintness hadn't gone away, but it was a comfortable type of quaintness rather than a stifling one, and he at last decided that this place might just be a lot more fun than he thought it would be.   
As he clomped out of the apartment building in what was rather unimaginatively called Third District, Sora realized yet another thing about his new home: there was barely anybody around. He was just beginning to wonder whether he would, in fact, be bored out of his mind here, when a shadow detached itself from the wall across the square and started heading in his direction. The shadow resolved itself into a young man with very blond hair who looked to be a little older (and much taller) than Sora himself, dressed entirely in black and, for some reason, with only one sleeve. Sora waited where he was; his instincts about people were rarely wrong, but for some reason he couldn't tell if this new guy was friendly or not.   
"Hey," the stranger said casually when stopped a few feet away. "You new here?"   
"Yeah, is it that obvious?" Sora asked, a little ruefully.   
The blond laughed quietly, immediately driving Sora's impression of him towards the "friendly" side, and he grinned. "We don't get a lot of people standing around in doorways looking like they lost their way," One Sleeve explained, grinning himself. "When that happens, it's pretty clear someone's new."   
Sora laughed, scratching the back of his head at the same time. "I guess when you put it that way… I'm Sora," he offered, sticking his hand out.   
The blond took it and shook it firmly. "Cloud Strife."   
"…_Cloud_?" Sora had to concentrate very, very hard to keep from bursting out into insane laughter.   
Clearly, this was an old grievance; Cloud just rolled his eyes with a time-tested suffering expression and groaned a little. "I tell myself my parents were nuts. Or that they meant it in the 'obscuring vision' way, rather than 'the fluffy things in the sky'."   
Sora couldn't help it; he let out a great squawk of laughter, doubling over with his hands on his knees. "Fluffy!" he managed to get out, gesturing vaguely at Cloud's hair.   
"Heyyyyyyy," the older boy said warningly, "no getting any ideas."   
"Too late!"   
Cloud groaned again. "I walked into that one... Just don't _ever_ call me that and I won't kick your ass."   
"You and what army?" Sora recovered enough to say with a grin, but he began to calm down at last and finally stood upright again, grinning still. "Actually, we sorta match – Mom heard my name on a trip somewhere and gave it to me, and Dad figured out it meant 'sky' too late to stop her using it."   
"See? You embarrass me, I'll embarrass you. So are you just looking around right now, or are you looking for something specific?"   
Sora's stomach chose that moment to rumble, loudly, and Sora looked up at Cloud with a sheepish expression. "Is there anywhere a guy can get something to eat around here?"   
Cloud glanced up at the building behind them, then back down again. "Don't want to get something for free in your own kitchen?"   
"Mom's unpacking. If you're smart, you run for cover."   
"Got it. Come on, if you can wait a little, I'll give you the abbreviated tour before we go to the café." Cloud turned and began heading for the stairs that led to one of the large sets of doors that Sora had noticed in the district; assuming these led to another part of Traverse, he eagerly followed his new guide.   
The doors were made of heavy wood and iron, but were relatively easy to open once Cloud had showed him the special latch that kept them closed and the trick of pushing them exactly in the middle, and they stepped into what looked to be a narrow alley with buildings even taller than were in the Third District. Sora had never considered himself a claustrophobic, but with those buildings surrounding him and blocking out nearly all of the natural light, he could certainly understand how people could be. "This is the Second District," Cloud said, obviously not bothered by the narrow lane. "More apartments, and that's almost all. Library to your left, dojo to your right-"   
"Dojo?" Sora asked in confusion, caught off guard by that. "There's a dojo here?"   
"More like an indoor practice area, but yeah. There." Cloud pointed at a pair of dull blue doors to their right, which didn't appear any different than any of the other doors he'd seen there. "There's a pair of swordsmen in the town and a retired ninja, and they all sort of share the space and paying for it to get fixed and everything. You practice?"   
"I'd started with the sword right before we moved, but… well, we moved," Sora replied, still looking at the doors.   
"If you want to start again, they won't mind. I take classes there, but I'm nearly done with them; I think they want me to help assist when I finish. Come on, there's open space this way." Apparently Cloud had noticed Sora's discomfort in the alley, and he lead the smaller boy around a corner and into a large, long, _open_ space that made Sora much more comfortable, with many more people around than in the Third District. "You must be from somewhere pretty sparse."   
Sora shook his head, looking around at the new area. "It's bigger than this, but a lot flatter. The most we had was two stories, not-" he did a quick count of the buildings lining the alley "-five. We lived on the beach; no one wanted to kill the view."   
Cloud whistled slightly at that revelation. "Wow, that sounds… really nice. We don't have anything like that around here."   
"Yeah, I can tell." He shoved away a slight pang of homesickness and pointed to the end of the open space. "So you guys have a bell tower?"   
"Yeah, and it never rings. Right below that is the Gizmo Shop, and over there is the hotel, and that way are all the shops for clothes and books and stuff like that." Cloud swung easily back into tour guide mode, motioning to each of the places as he named them, finally gesturing to another wooden door below the hotel. "Back there's the alley where a lot of people our age hang out; it's just a place to get away from the parents, and there's a good dumpling stand back there, but it's closed today."   
Sora, however, hadn't been paying attention since the word "place," because at that point, the door to said alley had opened and two people had walked out: a silver-haired boy in a yellow shirt and blue pants who was impossibly good-looking, and a small auburn-haired girl in a white shirt and purple skirt, who was laughing at something the boy had just said. Sora's eyes widened as they locked on her, and he unconsciously started heading in her direction until he felt a jerk on the back of his clothing.   
"Hey, don't do that," Cloud warned, pulling Sora back by the collar of his shirt. "Trust me, that's not smart."   
"_Who is she_?" he asked, still trying to get over to her somehow and completely not listening to Cloud.   
Recognizing the warning signs, Cloud literally dragged Sora off to the side of the open area, out of the path of the girl and boy who were completely oblivious to the minor struggle that was going on. Whacking him on the back of the head with one gloved hand, Cloud managed to get Sora's attention enough to get him to look at him. "You _don't_ want to try that."   
"What? Why not? Who _is_ she?"   
"Her name is Kairi, and reason number one is that her guardian is an overprotective insane man who will not let her associate with any guy."   
"Well then who was _that_ guy?"   
"Reason number two," Cloud retorted as the boy and girl disappeared into the alley with the dojo-practice area. "His name is Riku, and if her guardian _did_ let her have anything to do with boys, they would be dating so fast it's not even funny."   
"Anything else while you're crushing my hopes?"   
"Yeah, reason number three. She also-"   
But Cloud was interrupted by a yell from far above them, and the blond immediately dived out of the way, dragging Sora rather painfully along by the hand still gripping his shirt collar. Within a second there was a _thud_ from the space they'd been standing in, and a small form rolled to its feet from the somersault it had tucked into when it hit the ground.   
Just as Sora was trying to figure out who would be suicidal enough to jump off the top of the two-story building next to them, a loud, almost piercing female voice rang out from the dust cloud that had been kicked up with the landing. "Get out of my landing space quicker next time!" the voice yelled, before turning and running down the alley with the dojo. Sora just barely caught a glimpse of a girl who was about his height with very short black hair before Cloud started speaking again.   
"-has an older sister who's even more insane than their guardian."   
"_That's_ Kairi's _sister_?" Sora demanded in disbelief, spinning to stare at Cloud.   
"Step-sister, actually; it's kind of complicated and I don't know all of it, but essentially they're sisters. Her name's Yuffie; she's one of the retired ninja's pupils, and she's a pain in everyone's ass."   
"How- Wha-"   
"Come on, let's get you fed before your brain breaks entirely." Cloud secured his grip on Sora's collar once again and hauled him off towards the set of large doors that led into the First District.   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
"The story, as far as I know, is something like this: Kairi's mother married Yuffie's father when the girls were young, then they both died in a ship crash. Their guardian is a man named Cid Highwind, and he moved them all here after the funeral nine years ago. There's two men you don't want to mess with in this town, and he's one of them."   
"Why? And who's the other?"   
Somehow – he still wasn't sure how – Cloud had managed to drag the new boy into the first district and get him into a chair at the café, and then had proceeded to drop an ice cube down the back of his shirt to "wake him up." It worked, with amusing results. Sora now had a sandwich in front of him while Cloud just had a drink, and the blond was attempting to steer Sora away from the path his thoughts were clearly going. Cid Highwind made a very good threat.   
"Cid's the best pilot around and one of the people who keeps this town working. There's nothing he can't fix, it seems, and they say he used to be a soldier before they moved here. He could pick you up and throw you in the air like a toy."   
And the threat definitely had no effect, because Sora obviously discarded it from relevancy. "Who's the other?"   
Cloud mentally groaned; the kid was way too determined for his own good. "Riku's father. He _is_ this town; he's in charge, he's got the most money. Not a bad guy, really, but powerful. _He_ expects Riku and Kairi to be together. The whole _town_ expects it. Trust me, it's just not something you want to get involved in."   
"Well I can't know if it won't work or not unless I try it, right?" Sora asked, relatively reasonably. Half the sandwich had vanished without Cloud even noticing; apparently the kid liked to eat a _lot_. "Is there any way I can even meet her? That's not such a big thing, is it?"   
_Yes_. "I guess not…" _Damn you, Strife!_ "But _don't_ make _any_ moves for her. _Definitely_ not in front of Riku, and _definitely_ not in front of Cid." _Better_.   
"Okay, okay," Sora finally gave in, just a little sullenly. He picked up the second half of the sandwich, and took a large bite before speaking again. "But how do I meet her?"   
Cloud mentally groaned yet again and gave into the inevitable; maybe Sora just needed to learn through hard experience. "She doesn't do sword work or martial arts, so I guess you'll just have to go to the alley at some point. Hell, you'll probably meet just about everyone else at the same time, so it won't be a total waste of time." He ignored Sora's glare as he finished off his drink. "You'll meet Riku at practice, too; he's a natural at swordplay, better than me even."   
"So when are those classes?"   
"Every day you can come at four." As he was speaking, a jingling came from behind Cloud, in time with heavy footsteps on the cobblestones. Sora looked up from his sandwich at the new noise and his eyes widened; he hurriedly looked down again as a tall figure, dressed almost entirely in leather, passed their table and took a seat in the darkest corner.   
"Who is _that_?" Sora hissed across the table, still mentally shaking; that man gave off a sense of "intimidating" the like of which he'd never seen.   
"That's Leon," Cloud replied under his breath, leaning slightly over the table to keep the conversation quiet, an action that Sora copied.   
"Leon?"   
"Yeah, that's all he'll tell us. He keeps to himself; it doesn't seem like he lives with anybody, either. He just showed up here a few months ago. The only time anyone sees him is when he has to buy things or when he comes here occasionally for some food. Rumor has it he's a swordsman, even better than the masters, but he doesn't practice with anyone so no one knows for sure."   
Sora shuddered just a little at the feeling that was still scratching at the back of his head, and he devoutly hoped that Leon hadn't seen it. "I'll keep out of his way, then."   
"Smart move." Cloud sat back again, sticking the straw that he had taken out of the glass back in and stirring the melting ice cubes a little. "So, anything else you want to know about this place?"   
He couldn't help it; Sora glanced over his shoulder in Leon's direction once more, wondering what was so intimidating about him and hoping he wouldn't notice, but fortunately for him Leon had opened a newspaper and was apparently reading it. It was hard to tell how tall the man was since he was sitting, but he had to be very tall indeed, which didn't help the feeling at all, and it was apparent he was very strong as the muscles on his arms were definitely visible. On a second look, it turned out that only his short-sleeved jacket was leather – but it was black leather, and it had a red lion's head on the sleeve. His pants and boots were solid black as well, and the source of the jingling was very apparent as there were no less than four belts either holding up his pants or just there for decoration. For some reason he also wore three small brown belts around his left forearm as well, as well as black gloves. His hair was long and brown, and his eye – at least the one that Sora could see – was cold blue. He couldn't be sure, but it appeared as though there was a scar across the bridge of his nose; Sora wasn't in a hurry to find out if that was true or not, though.   
Suppressing another shudder, Sora turned back to Cloud and his sandwich, trying to ignore the feeling that he had just jumped into a pool of ice water. "So how good are these sword masters?"   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Yeah, I _Advent Children_'d Cloud. I just couldn't see him in the cape and everything with this story, and he is in AC garb for KH2, so I just went with it.   
Usually I'm not a fast writer, but I'm feeling inspired on this. I think I had too much chocolate XD Until next time! 


	2. A Plot is Hatched

  
DISCLAIMER: My net worth right now is in negative money. Yes, I owe people that much. If I actually owned KH, I'd never have to borrow money again .:sigh:.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: And here's chapter two! Slightly less crazy than the first bit, slightly more serious, because the plot actually gets kicked off. It was while writing this chapter that I realized just how much I'd have to deviate from the original source material at certain points, because I couldn't stand doing things to some of the characters (turning Riku and Kairi into idiots, for example). I've figured out that the Leon/Yuffie parts will probably be mostly the same as in the movie, 'cause that relationship is just damn fun, but things are gonna be slightly crazy with the rest of them. It's gonna be interesting (damnit, there's that word again!) to see how it all goes together.   
I've posted up a very long string of author's notes/fun facts, as well as review replies and a challenge or three for my readers (with plushie prizes!) up on my livejournal, the address of which is www . livejournal . com / users / tairako Just copy and paste and edit out the spaces. Anonymous comments are more than welcome, as are comments from regular LJ users; just sign it with your ff.n name so I know it's you!   
  


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That night, Cid Highwind's residence was not a restful place to be. As usual.   
"YUFFIE! Where'd you put my lipstick!"   
"I didn't TOUCH it, I don't WANT to touch it, and I will NEVER touch it!"   
"You did SOMETHING with it 'cause now I can't FIND IT!"   
"SHUT UP!" the pilot roared from the living room where he was quickly developing a pounding headache. "Kairi, look under yer bed, that's where everythin' else ends up!" Years of experience had taught him that when something belonging to a teenage girl went missing, it would invariably be found under her bed or in her closet. Or sometimes in a shoe, but there was really no accounting for that.   
A moment of blessed silence, and then Kairi's voice piped up "Oh, there it is! Thanks, Cid!"   
He groaned, because he knew what came next even if she didn't seem to. "Kairi, get down here," he called, pushing himself out of his comfortable chair and awaiting the confrontation.   
A moment later, Kairi came through the door, an honestly puzzled expression on her face and an open tube of lipstick in her hand. "What is it, Cid?"   
"Why d'you need t'put on lipstick at this time of night?"   
She immediately looked both contrite and hopeful. "Well, Mela asked me if we could do something together tonight-"   
"AT RIKU'S!" the ninja-in-training down the hall yelled.   
"YUFFIE!" Kairi shrieked back, turning very, very red.   
"Wellllllllll now." Cid drummed his fingers on the back of his chair, watching his charge as she slowly looked at the carpet. "You know we have a rule 'bout stuff like this."   
"It's a completely _unfair_ rule!" she burst out, not quite meeting his eyes but meaning every word. "Cid, it's just hanging out! Nothing's going to happen!"   
Cid snorted, eloquently expressing his opinion on the likelihood of _that_. "Yeah right nothin's gonna happen. Y'know th'rule: you gotta be eighteen first."   
"Ciiiiiiiiiiiiid!"   
"WHO CARES?" the older girl called down the hall again. "The only good thing about boys is beating them up in practice!"   
"It's no WONDER none of them like you since you keep trying to KILL them!"   
"That's all they're good for!"   
"You are a complete IMBECILE!"   
"_SHUT UP!_" Cid yelled again, sick of it all. Sometimes he had _no idea_ why they weren't kicked out of their apartment, with all the yelling that went on. Maybe the walls were just really, really thick. "Yuffie, get down here! There's a change comin'!"   
In the baffled silence that followed, Yuffie's footsteps were easy to hear before she stuck her head in the door. "Change? What change?"   
"Just come in here an' sit down," Cid snapped, out of patience for the night.   
The ninja did, flopping on the couch, and a look from Cid sent Kairi to join her. The girls looked almost nothing alike: Yuffie's hair was a matte black while Kairi's was an auburn so intense it was almost purple in some lights. Kairi had deep blue eyes while Yuffie's were a dark brown. Yuffie was also somewhat taller than Kairi, but Kairi tended to make up for that by wearing tall shoes. The only things similar about them were their skin tones – both very pale, even with the amount of time they spent outside – and their haircuts, and even then Yuffie's was shorter than Kairi's.   
Cid had no idea what had happened; the girls had gotten along fine until a few years ago, when Yuffie had begun her ninja training and Kairi had turned into a Girl. Maybe that was it; before that, they'd both been relatively tomboyish, climbing things and playing pranks and the like, but Kairi no more kept to that direction now than Yuffie took to dresses and skirts. It made for a household that seemed ready to rip itself apart at times, no matter what rules he had.   
"Let's see," he started out, eying them both carefully. Kairi blushed faintly and looked down, but Yuffie met his gaze squarely, as if daring him to tell her she was doing something wrong. "So," he finally said to Kairi, "you wanna date."   
"_Yes._" She went a bit redder but finally met his eyes. "I'm _sixteen,_ Cid, I think I can make some decisions on my own."   
"All right," he said firmly, crossing his arms. "You can date."   
"_What?_" Yuffie shrieked, sitting bolt upright.   
"When Yuffie does."   
"_What!_" This time the shriek was Kairi's, and she jumped to her feet at the same time. "But she'll NEVER date!"   
"Damn straight I won't!"   
"Not my problem."   
"CID!"   
"Look," he threw out, patience completely gone, "you got _two_ choices. Take this or stick with th'old one, but make up yer mind in the next five seconds."   
Kairi was fuming, clenching her fists and glaring at her stepsister as if trying to burn a hole through her head (and Yuffie was glaring right back), but finally she gave in. "All right, all right."   
"Now. You ain't goin' out tonight, so you cin go put that back under yer bed," Cid stated, nodding at the lipstick. Kairi's fists clenched again, but she turned and walked out of the room before she could say something that would get her grounded – or worse.   
Yuffie, meanwhile, just sat on the couch smirking. "Y'know, I _like_ that rule."   
"An' _you_ could make this place easier t'live in, you don't need t'provoke her _every time_ somethin' happens!"   
She pouted, her expression completely fake. "But it's so easy!"   
"Yuuuuuuuuuffiiiiiiiiiieee…"   
"All right, I get the picture, no more hiding Miss Priss's bunny slippers." Yuffie huffed and stood, throwing the ends of her yellow scarf over her shoulder. "Can I go now?"   
"Yeah, get out of here," Cid growled, waving her out as he sat down again. As he picked up his tiny screwdriver and once more turned back to the clock he was trying to repair, he heard the ninja's door slam loudly. He could only pray that that would be the end of the noise for the night.   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
The next day found Sora once again escaping his mother's insane combination of cleaning and unpacking by getting out of the apartment as fast as he could, plugging his ears so he could honestly say he hadn't heard her calling for him to come help. As they had arranged when they'd gone home for the night, Cloud was waiting for him outside the door to the building, clearly not happy about what they were planning to do. He'd hidden himself in the shadows again and kept his face down, and the few people that were going to work passed him by without looking at him.   
"Hey, Cloud!" Sora called as he trotted over, and the blond looked up at last. "Ready to go?"   
"No," he said bluntly, shaking his head. "Sora, no one's going to be there this early, it's useless going now."   
"But you said-"   
"No, you _thought. I_ was trying to tell you that you thought wrong." Cloud let that sink in for a moment before continuing. "But people'll be there later. In the meantime, let's go show you the dojo." He turned and started walking for the same set of stairs he had taken yesterday, without waiting for Sora to catch up.   
The younger boy trotted after him, more than a little confused. "What's up, Cloud?"   
"I told you yesterday, I don't want to go. But I'll drop you off if you insist on going there."   
"So why _don't_ you want to go?" Sora asked as he caught up, his natural energy helping him keep up with Cloud's longer strides easily. "The way you talked yesterday sounded like you knew what was going on with everything and that you liked doing stuff with them."   
Cloud stopped in front of the doors to the Second District, wearing a peculiar closed expression that Sora was fast learning was a trademark of his new friend. "You're not going to let it rest, are you?"   
"Wasn't planning on it, no," he responded as he stopped in front of Cloud.   
"Fine. Guess you had to find out sooner or later." To Sora's surprise, Cloud turned away and started pulling off his left glove, and he thought he saw a glimpse of metal on the older boy's hand. But then Cloud pushed up that sleeve of his and turned around, and Sora couldn't help his eyes widening in shock.   
The bottom half of Cloud's arm, including his hand, was gone, and in its place was a gold construction almost skeletal in appearance, held in place just below his elbow by very thick metal rings. Above the rings were several scars, almost all the way to his shoulder, that were clearly old and had long since healed over as well as they were able to. Sora had to honestly stop himself from grabbing his own arm as he unintentionally imagined the pain that such an injury must have caused.   
Cloud dropped the sleeve back into place and pulled the glove on once more, almost with an unearthly calm. "You're not going to run away shrieking?"   
"Why should I?" Sora asked honestly.   
"Most people do. It's why I don't 'hang out' with those people anymore. They saw what happened and didn't take it well. Ready to go?" Cloud let the glove's cuff go with a snap and pushed the doors open almost negligently, walking through and into the Second District.   
Once again Sora had to scurry after him the short distance to the dojo, but he managed to get in front of the blue doors before Cloud could open them. "What happened?" He mentally cursed his curiosity; one day it would get him killed, he knew.   
For a moment it looked like Cloud was contemplating being the one to kill him, but in the end the blond just shook his head and started talking. "I got it caught in a machine in the Gizmo Shop four years ago when I snuck in on a dare. I passed out from the pain; the next thing I knew I was lying on a bed in the infirmary and a third of my arm was missing."   
Sora was completely astounded by the matter-of-fact tone Cloud could use when talking about a debilitating injury like that, and it took him a minute to speak again. "So how can you do sword work? And why didn't your friends take it well?"   
"Cid built a prosthesis for me," Cloud replied, holding up his left arm and flexing his fingers. Looking closely, Sora could see that they didn't quite function as well as real fingers; they were a bit slower, and seemed to have less random mobility. But for a fake limb, it was really convincing. "It's why I'll never really put him down. The man is overprotective and crazy, but this thing lets me live normally and he's the only reason I have it. But it's why Riku's better than me with swords. It's hooked into my nerves somehow, but in fighting it's more like a prop than anything, and I have to do most of the hand control with my right instead of both. And I can't use just my left, though I can use just my right."   
"So what about Riku and everyone else?"   
Cloud snorted, something Sora had been sure he'd never hear, and reached for the doors. "Riku's the one who dared me, him and his friends. We were friends until then, but he didn't want anyone to find out he half caused my accident, so he pulled away, and by the time I got out of the infirmary with this thing attached he'd already 'moved on.'" The blond paused with his hands on the door handles, then looked at Sora again, more serious than he had been. "Watch out for him. I mean it. He's used to getting his way and he's very competitive. He likes to be the best and loves winning."   
"Trust me, you've got nothing to worry about there. I just started, remember? You could both wipe the floor with me." Sora flashed Cloud a grin before reaching forward and dragging open one of the old doors. "Now let's go check this place out."   
Inside, there was everything that Sora was expecting, though there was very little of it. A rack of different live swords was across the room, holding everything from one absolutely gigantic blade to a curved black one, while practice weapons were on the right, but there were only seven of either. There were full length mirrors on the left, for trainees to practice stances and positions in front of, but only two, not the solid wall Sora was used to. There were two crates next to the rack of live swords that seemed to hold real and practice ninja weaponry, but again there wasn't much of it. The only things that were as he expected were the bright lights in the room and the mats covering the floor – and the very conspicuous first aid kid hanging from two nails on one of the walls. In the middle of the floor, sitting tailor-style and polishing a broadsword, was a man who looked to be in his middle fifties or so by the amount of gray in his hair, but had the physique of a thirty-year-old. A very fit thirty-year-old. Sora swallowed a little in apprehension at having to fight him; it looked like his blows would _hurt_.   
"Ah, Cloud," the man said as he saw who had walked in the door. "Little early today, aren't you?"   
"A little, but I wanted to bring Sora by." He gave Sora a calculated shove in the back, pushing him into the room before him. "Master, this is Sora. Sora, this is Master Bersi. He's the one you're forced to listen to until you get Master Sanero."   
"One day I'm gonna beat that impertinence out of you," Bersi commented casually as he stood with his sword in hand, showing absolutely no signs of his age. Sora was a little startled to see the master's right eye was covered by a plain black patch, but clearly it made no difference to either the man himself or Cloud, so he shoved it quickly out of his mind.   
"You like it too much to really do it," Cloud mildly retorted as he started across the room.   
"Scamp," the man shot after him, then turned to Sora. "So. You're new here."   
"Y-Yes, sir."   
Bersi's eyebrow raised. "I'm not gonna eat you, you know."   
"Yes, sir."   
"Can't you say anything else?"   
"Yes, sir. I mean, no, sir, I mean- aww, damnit." Sora glared at Cloud, who was muffling laughter in front of the sword rack. "It's not funny, Fluffy," he warned, which only sent Cloud into actual laughter, leaning against the wall.   
Bersi glanced between the boys, then shook his head. "I'll ask later. Meanwhile, drop the 'sir' since it makes you stutter so much. You done any work before?"   
"A little, s- A little."   
"All right then." Without warning, Bersi tossed his sword hilt-first at Sora; the boy dove to catch it and just barely made it. "Warm up. Cloud, warm up and try him out, see how much he knows."   
"Sure thing." Sora looked over in time to see Cloud reach for the grip of the gigantic sword, the one he would swear would take three people to lift, and easily pull it out of the rack with one hand. His jaw hit the floor, but neither Cloud nor Bersi commented on it. "C'mon Sora, you heard him. Warm up."   
With an effort, Sora pushed his mouth closed and nodded, then began.   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
An hour later, Cloud, breathing hard, finally lowered his sword and watched the boy spread-eagled on the floor for a long time before speaking. "When you say a little… How much is 'a little'?"   
Sora was panting to get his breath back, and didn't feel like he could move at all. The mats on the floor were a lot more comfortable than standing, so he just stayed where he was. "A year. Maybe a year and a half."   
"That's not a little, that's pretty intense training." Cloud had won, of course, but it had been a lot harder than he'd anticipated. Not only was Sora more trained than he'd thought, but the boy's innate stubbornness would just not let him give up until he literally couldn't move, which was exactly where he'd ended up. He'd landed very few hits on the blond, but Cloud had had to work fast to make that happen.   
"I guess." Sora finally sat up with a groan, rubbing his head as he did so. "That's gonna bruise…"   
"You're a stubborn idiot, but you've got guts, kid," Bersi's voice came from the side of the mats, where he'd watched the match. Sora was quickly learning that the jocular insults weren't to be taken seriously, and managed to push himself up as the master approached. "You need training, but from what I saw, you're a natural. We'll see what Cloud here can do with you, if you want to do some individual work and catch up with some of the others."   
"That sounds good… Ow." He winced as he touched a bruise on his ribcage. "You hit hard."   
A black-gloved hand pushed itself into his field of vision; Sora grasped it and pulled himself to his feet. "What do you expect with this giant popsicle stick?" Cloud asked, motioning to the sword now propped over his shoulder guard.   
"Why in the hell do you _use_ something that big?" Sora picked up Bersi's sword from where it had fallen on the floor and handed it back to him.   
"Why not?" There really wasn't much that could be said to that, and Cloud put his weapon back in the rack. He'd been careful not to draw any blood, so there was no reason to clean it now. "Come on, it's late enough to go over if you want to now."   
"I think I'd like to die in peace," Sora groaned, but straightened up with a wince. "All right, let's go. Maybe feeling like this'll stop anything stupid from falling out of my mouth."   
Cloud just shook his head. "Somehow I doubt it." Looking back over his shoulder, he waved negligently to the master. "I'll be back later, Bersi."   
"You better be!" he called as the doors shut behind the boys.   
They made a stop at the fountain near the door to the alley to let Sora rinse off a little and help him feel more human. Sora simply stuck his entire head in the water for a few seconds, then pulled himself out and shook like a wet dog, sending water droplets flying everywhere and making his hair even more spiky than normal. "Sure you won't come?" he asked as he tried to get his hair into something resembling its normal shape.   
"Perfectly." Privately, Cloud was against even Sora going there; it had been too long since he'd had a real friend, and his cynical side kept making snide remarks that after meeting Riku and fawning over Kairi, Sora wouldn't want anything to do with him. But he hadn't left when Cloud had shown him his arm, which had always been his yardstick in the past, so maybe it would work out – with the exception of Kairi, of course. Plus the boy was just naturally friendly and outgoing; there was no way he could only have one friend. "Go on; if you need rescuing from the cleaning later, I'll be somewhere in the Third District until four."   
"And then you'll be practicing. Gotcha." Sora grinned, giving up on his hair, and hit Cloud's hand in an impromptu high five. "Catch ya later." With a bounce in his step that was completely antithetical to someone who'd just been beaten into the floor, Sora headed over to the door to the alley. Cloud turned away before he opened it, heading for the stairs, wondering just where the hell he got his stamina.   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
Not that Sora would show Cloud, but he was petrified. It wasn't that he thought the blond boy would do the normal "I told you so," but Cloud was so negative about these people to start with he didn't think it would be good to give him reason to justify his beliefs without personal proof. Yes, they – or Riku, at least – had treated him badly, but there had to be an explanation for that, right? They couldn't be all bad, right?   
Wondering whether his curiosity or his optimism would get him killed first, Sora took a deep breath and shoved open the door, walking through it into a slightly gloomy, poorly lit, narrow alley. There was a long trough of water in the ground that he guessed was part of a sewer system and led to a hole in the wall that was covered by a large grate. Looking up, he could see several balconies attached to what he assumed were various rooms in the hotel, and to his right was that dumpling stand that Cloud had mentioned, though apparently it was still too early for it to be open. And to his left…   
There was a small multitude of voices, mostly female, coming from his left, though he couldn't immediately see the people speaking. Taking a few steps away from the door, he found a niche the size of a fairly big room that had a few crates scattered around it. Perched on the crates and standing around were a group of about seven girls and only three guys, all talking animatedly with one or two others and occasionally laughing at something said. Kairi was sitting on one of the crates in the back corner, feet dangling, and laughing with Riku.   
Sora's eyes immediately locked on her, and he took a few steps forward, hesitant, then stopped as he realized that the others were gradually falling silent as they noticed him. He wasn't shy by any means, but he was determined to not look like a dork now.   
And of course that went right out the window. "Uh… hi," he ventured, with a bit of a sheepish grin. _Dorrrrrrrrrrk!_ his mind yelled at him, and he determinedly ignored it. "I'm not… interrupting anything, am I?" _Major, MAJOR dork!_   
"You new here?" one of the other girls asked as she hopped off her crate, watching him curiously. She had blonde hair that came down to just below her shoulders, and was kind of cute, but nowhere near Kairi in Sora's estimation. But she was friendly, which was just what he was hoping for, so he grinned and stuck out his hand.   
"We just moved in yesterday. I'm Sora."   
She grinned back as she took his hand and shook it. "I'm Namine."   
That introduction seemed to be some sort of cue, because suddenly the other girls, Kairi excluded, were swarming towards him, trying to shake his hand and tell him all their names at once. Sora heard a Mela, an Ileen, and three other names he couldn't identify as he was forced to back up under the cheerful onslaught. He was laughing, trying to reach for whichever hand was closest, when all of a sudden the ground under his right foot… wasn't there anymore. Everything went into slow motion as he realized just what was happening, and he began windmilling his arms in a desperate attempt to keep his balance. Namine dove for him, trying to keep him upright, but she didn't make it in time and he fell with a loud _SPLASH_ into the strip of water.   
There was silence as he spluttered his way to his feet, thoroughly soaked, and he looked at his clothes through brown hair that was dripping into his face. Suddenly, without even him quite knowing why he was doing it, he started to laugh quietly, a sound which quickly grew louder as he realized just how stupid he had to look. Namine, who'd been watching him in concern, smiled when she heard the laugh, then began giggling herself, finally moving into all-out laughter with him, and the other girls weren't too far behind her. Sora was still laughing as Mela, a girl with dark hair and tanned skin, offered him her hand to help him out, which he gladly took, stepping onto solid ground again and starting to squeegee out his hair.   
Kairi and the other two guys were laughing along with the others, but Riku was simply watching the scene from his position leaning against the wall, almost contemplatively. "What a dork," he commented, but without any real asperity.   
"Oh, be nice, Riku," Kairi teasingly admonished, still giggling. "The poor thing just fell in the water."   
"Yeah, like I said, a dork." But he smiled and pushed off the wall. "Come on, let's go say hi before his fan club steals him away." Kairi, still giggling, hopped off her crate and the two of them, along with the other guys, approached the group that had moved a conspicuous distance from the water.   
"Yeah, don't worry, I'm used to this," Sora was replying to a question one of the girls had asked as they got there, now in the process of wringing out his jacket and gloves. He stopped, though, when he saw them there, and grinned once more. "Hi, I'm Sora. I'm very graceful. Who're you?"   
Sora'd spent the night before trying to think of ways to _not_ come off like some sort of freaky stalker the first time he actually met Kairi (and Riku). So, he figured, that meant he had to pretend not to know who anyone was and let them introduce themselves. And in truth, that unintentional plunge in the water had done him a lot of good; he wasn't tongue-tied anymore, simply because he figured there wasn't too much more he could do to look ridiculous. Maybe it was backwards thinking, but it was working fine for him.   
"I'm Riku," the silver-haired boy replied, putting his hand out, which Sora shook. The boy didn't seem to be quite as outgoing as the rest of the group, but he honestly couldn't see anything like what Cloud had warned him about. He didn't think Cloud would make up anything to make his injury worse, but maybe Riku had grown up since then. "Where're you from?"   
"The Destiny Isles," Sora answered, and several of the teens gasped enviously. "What?" he asked, confused by the reaction.   
Riku laughed, and the laugh also wasn't quite as open as he was used to, but it didn't sound bad at all. "Everyone here knows about them – it's like the dream vacation spot. Hardly anyone gets to go, though."   
"_You_ got to, Riku," one of the other boys commented, watching his friend with an ironic look.   
"Once, for half a week, eight years ago. Dad hasn't taken us back since."   
"But you still went." The boy grinned at Sora and stuck out his own hand. The boy looked sort of like Sora's best friend back on the Isles, Tidus, with his blond hair and blue eyes, but he dressed much differently than the beach boy with baggy gray pants and a white jacket. Sora shook hands with him, definitely glad he'd decided to come even despite Cloud's warnings. "I'm Kyohaku, but call me Kyo."   
"And I'm Yurasu," the last boy said. He had dark brown hair contained by a bandana, along with an oversized red shirt and blue jeans. "We were all gonna go over to the First District, you wanna come?"   
As much as he wanted to, Sora figured it was probably better to get out of there before he _did_ do something else to humiliate himself. He still hadn't talked directly to Kairi, but he _knew_ that when he did, everything would just go down the drain. "Nah, I should probably get back and help Mom out so she doesn't skin me later."   
"Parents," Yurasu said, in just the perfect tone of exasperation that everyone had to agree with.   
"Yeah. I was just out looking around before she roped me in."   
"Didn't I see you with Cloud yesterday? At the café?" Riku suddenly asked – and this time, his tone was almost accusing, such a shift from earlier that Sora was left a little off-balance.   
He shrugged. "Yeah, he showed me around yesterday 'cause I had no idea where anything was. He also took me to the dojo."   
"Really?" And Riku began to laugh quietly, a laugh very similar to Cloud's but somehow more… nerve-wracking. "Guess I'll see you there some time, then. I'm there almost every day at four."   
Remembering Cloud's warning about Riku's love of winning, and considering the fact that he was starting to get just a little creepy, Sora grinned again and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, but I'm horrible. I'm sure you'll kill me if we ever fight." _After all, Cloud says this guy is better than him and look what_ he _did to me!_   
Riku laughed again, and somehow all the creepiness disappeared. "We'll see. Catch you later, Sora."   
"Bye, guys!" he called over his shoulder as he trotted out of the alley, back in the direction of the Third District, still carrying his wet jacket and gloves. But when he'd turned around and began jogging back for the door, shoes squelching on the pavement, his face fell.   
_She never said a word to me,_ he thought ruefully as the door closed behind him.   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
A couple hours later, with dry hair and in a fresh change of clothes, Sora managed to once again escape his mother after helping her scrub down every inch of the kitchen and unpack all the cookware by saying he was meeting a friend, which wasn't entirely a lie. He wanted to seek out Cloud and see if he could dig some more information out of the blond, but when he looked around the district, his friend was nowhere to be seen. However, coming his way, and nearly making him run into a lamppost as he realized it, was the exact person he wanted to find out more information about – Kairi. And she was alone, the first time he had ever seen her without anyone else around.   
She hadn't seen him, so he ducked back in the doorway to take a minute to compose himself. _Okay, you can do this,_ he told himself firmly, determined to _not_ look like an idiot again. At least here there was no water for him to fall in. _Just… go over and say hi. You never have any problem with that, just do it!_ He took a deep breath and let it out quickly, shook his head, and ducked out of his hiding place.   
"Sora!" she called as she recognized him, and his heart leapt as she changed directions towards him. She smiled as she got closer, then nodded at his clothes. "All black now?"   
"What? Oh, yeah," he replied, glancing down at himself. "Couldn't stay in the other stuff after it got soaked."   
She laughed, and he nearly tripped over his own feet with how much he liked hearing it and knowing he had caused it when he hadn't done something stupid. "I never told you who I was. My name's Kairi," she said with a smile, and he positively melted.   
"I-I'm Sora… But yeah, you knew that," He scratched the back of his head as she laughed again, mentally trying to make his tongue untie itself. "So, uh… You live around here?"   
She nodded and pointed to the stairway that led to the Second District, and the platform it led to. "Just up there. So I guess we're neighbors, huh?" And she smiled again as she started walking once more, and this time Sora really _did_ trip over his own feet as he tried to keep up with her. "So where are you going?"   
"Ah, th-the dojo," he replied with the first thing that came to mind. "Yeah, I wanted to see if there was anyone there, and… yeah, see people."   
She giggled this time. "You didn't seem so stuttery back in the alley."   
_Damn you, mouth!_ "Well… Come on." He managed a sheepish grin as they started climbing the stairs. "I'd just fallen in the water… I couldn't be much dumber."   
"Oh, not really. I know Namine definitely didn't think so," she said mischievously with a teasing glint in her eye.   
"She _what?_" Sora demanded, shocked by that revelation. Attracting girls was all well and good, but he wanted to attract the girl with him now!   
"She couldn't stop talking about you after you left. If any of us had known where you lived, she probably would've turned up at your door and offered to help your mother." Kairi grinned, unlatching the doors to the Second District. "And since I know where you are now, maybe I'll just let that slip to her."   
"Uh…" He had to get her mind off of setting him up with anyone, since that definitely wasn't the way he wanted his dating future to go. He grabbed for a change of topic. "So where're you going if you're not going home?"   
"The library," she answered as they let the doors shut behind them. "I'm trying to study math with the books there 'cause I'm not very good at it and my guardian wants me to get better, but it just doesn't make any sense to me."   
He had _no_ idea what made him go "Hey, I can help you with that!" but he did it anyway, definitely surprising Kairi. But he grabbed the idea and ran with it. "That was my best subject back on the Isles, so it wouldn't be any problem if you needed extra help." _And I can spend time with her then!_   
Kairi brightened significantly at the idea. "Really? You could?" But then her expression fell. "But you couldn't. Cid won't let me do things with guys."   
_Ah-hah! Opening!_ "Not even date?"   
She shook her head, folding her arms over her chest. "No, not until my stepsister does."   
That thought just boggled his mind. "_Yuffie? Date?_"   
She gave him an odd sideways look at that and he immediately began cursing himself silently. He'd just let out that he knew more about her than she'd told him, which had to sound pretty freaky from a guy who'd just moved there the day before. "Yeah, how'd you know that?"   
In his desperation, Sora went for the truth. "Well, when Cloud was showing me around yesterday, she nearly jumped on our heads." Kairi immediately relaxed and rolled her eyes, clearly at Yuffie's actions rather than Sora himself; apparently that course of action was par for the course with that girl. "And then she yelled at us and ran off. Cloud told me her name and that she had a stepsister named Kairi."   
"She's crazy," Kairi stated flatly. "She only hangs out with Aerith, never wants to do anything besides train, and yells at everyone. I'm sorry she did that; I'll have to tell her to watch out again." Something in her tone made Sora think that that "talk" wouldn't exactly be comfortable. "But you're a friend of Cloud's? That could work, then…"   
"What?"   
"Well, Cid trusts Cloud more than the other boys, for some reason. So if I tell him you're Cloud's friend, he may let you tutor me." She smiled again, moving over to the doors to the library, and Sora had to lock his feet to the ground to keep from following her. "As long as we swear up and down that we won't leave the library."   
"Well, tutoring works best with the information, right?" Trying not to think about how unbearably stupid that sounded, Sora grinned. "So there wouldn't be reason to go anywhere else." _Yet_, he amended to himself. _Yet yet yet…_   
Kairi grinned as she pulled open one of the doors. "Exactly. It may just work after all. I'll meet you here this time tomorrow and tell you what Cid said, all right?"   
"Sure," he replied, actually sounding casual. "I'll see you later then, Kairi."   
"See you!" With another grin, she disappeared through the library door.   
Sora waited just until the door had closed, then spun and ran for the dojo, wrenching the door open. "Cloud!"   
_PING._ "HE'S NOT HERE!" Sora ducked the falling shuriken and shut the door before Yuffie could attack him again, then changed direction and ran back into the Third District.   
Yuffie was definitely going to be a problem. While the tutoring thing would work very well to get to know Kairi, it wasn't _dating_. And if Kairi couldn't date until Yuffie dated… and if Yuffie acted like that with everyone but that Aerith person Kairi had mentioned…   
Whoever would go out with her would have to be suicidal.   
Cloud was nowhere to immediately be found in the Third District. Sora even ran into the apartment building the blond had pointed out as his and knocked on his door, but no one answered. He was about to give up and go back to his place when he noticed a small, unlit alley leading to an elaborately decorated door, and decided to go ahead and give it a try. There was no knob to be seen, but as he approached the door, it simply slid up into the wall above it as he watched with wide eyes.   
"Oh… kaaaay," he said to himself, and went through before it decided to close him out. The door slid down behind him with a rasp of stone on stone, and Sora briefly panicked, thinking he would be trapped in the dark, but he began to calm down as he realized there was a sort of blue-green light from behind him. He turned around, and once again his jaw dropped at what he saw.   
He seemed to be in some sort of underground cave, and most of the cave floor was covered in murky water that he couldn't see the bottom through. In the center of the small lake was an island with an old, dilapidated small house on it that no one could possibly be living in. He couldn't tell what the light source was, but there were five large stones like oversized stepping stones that crossed the lake to the island from the small section of dry land. And sitting on the edge of the lake, humongous sword next to him on the ground, was Cloud.   
"Hey," he called back without turning around, his words sounding a little hollow in the vast space. "Quite something, isn't it?"   
"Yeah," Sora breathed with awe, moving forward slowly and trying to take it all in. "It's sort of…"   
"Creepy? A little. But it's quiet, and calm. Not a lot of places like that in this town."   
Sora sat down tailor-style next to the blond, looking out over the lake towards the house. "What's that there for?"   
Cloud shrugged. "Who knows? Legend has it a powerful magician used to live here and he made the entire cave and lake, as well as that door and the house. But he's long gone now, if he ever was here to begin with."   
"Don't legends usually have some truth in them? I can't think of any other way to explain that door." Sora looked over at his friend. "How'd you know it was me?"   
"I heard you when you were coming in. So, how'd meeting everyone go?"   
Sora turned away, sheepish. "Not… quite like I hoped."   
"…What happened?"   
"I fell in the water, had to leave without talking to Kairi, and apparently one of her _friends_ likes me."   
Cloud snorted. "Tough luck."   
And then Sora grinned as he unleashed his surprise. "But I'm going to be Kairi's tutor."   
"_What?_"   
"She's trying to get better at math, so I said I'd help her!"   
"You're good at math?"   
"For her I can be!"   
Cloud just shook his head. "And how, may I ask, are you planning on doing this without Cid finding out and killing you?"   
"Well, that was kinda odd, actually." Sora turned to face Cloud, resettling in his new position. "Kairi was going to ask Cid, and she said he'd probably agree because we were friends. Why's that?"   
"Oh, that." The blond shrugged. "I used to be friends with her and Yuffie, back before Kairi fell in with Riku's group and Yuffie went crazy. I think he feels sorry for me because of the accident, and I _know_ he'd like me to be after one of them if any guy was, but neither of them are my type."   
"Ohhhhhhhhh?" Sora asked, starting to grin. "So what is your type then?"   
He didn't answer.   
"Come on, what is it?"   
Still no answer.   
Sora just shook his head and changed the topic. "Soooooo, apparently Kairi's guardian won't let Kairi date until Yuffie does."   
"That's new. Used to be they couldn't date at all." Cloud actually grinned at the thought. "Kairi has to be fuming – she could have what she wanted if only she had a different stepsister. Yuffie is never going to date."   
"And that's the problem. Cloud-"   
"NO."   
"You don't even know what I was going to ask!"   
"Whatever it is, NO. I am _not_ getting involved in this crazy game of yours."   
Sora groaned. "C'mon, please? Would it really be that bad?"   
"For me, it would." Cloud grasped the hilt of his sword and stood, leaving Sora to scramble to his feet after him. "Sora, I keep away from these people for a reason. None of them want anything to do with me, so I don't get in their way."   
"Come on, Cloud," Sora practically pleaded, desperate. "I've only had one conversation with Kairi and I can tell _she_ wouldn't push you away if you talked to her." When the blond didn't have a retort for that and didn't move away, Sora continued on. "I'm not even asking for much help, just help me think some of this out."   
Cloud at last looked in his direction, that strangely closed off expression once again on his face. "Are you talking to me just to get me to help you?"   
"What?"   
"Are you just trying to use me?"   
"_What!_ NO!" Sora yelled, and the words echoed around the cavern as if to reinforce his vehement denial. "I mean, you can answer my questions, yeah, and you seem to know a lot more about this place than people think you should, but I'd hang out with you even without Kairi!"   
Cloud was silent until the echoes from Sora's half-shouted protest faded away, watching the water ripple slightly in the odd light. "All right," he said at last with a sigh. "I'm going to regret this, I know it. But all right."   
He grinned. "Thanks, Cloud."   
"But I am _not_ dating Yuffie."   
Sora held up both hands to forestall any other arguments. "I'm not gonna ask you to. But I need to think of someone who will, and fast. Tutoring's a start, but that's all it is." He groaned, the memory of his "encounter" with the female ninja coming back to him. "I looked for you in the dojo first, and Yuffie threw her star at me. She missed, but still – anyone who'd date her has to be the bravest person alive or hoping to find a swift end to it all."   
"She missed on purpose," Cloud said as he leaned the sword against the wall since they weren't going anywhere. "Yuffie's got pinpoint accuracy with those things. But she's armed, and very dangerous with them. You need someone who can defend himself, and I can't think of anyone in the sword classes who would do it."   
And suddenly Sora was struck with what could very possibly be the worst – or the best – idea he'd ever had. "Hey…"   
Cloud looked over quickly, not liking his tone of voice. "I'm hearing something bad coming…"   
"That guy at the café yesterday."   
It's was Cloud's turn for his jaw to drop, something Sora had thought had the same chance of happening as pigs flying. "_What?_" he hissed in a fierce whisper, almost as though the leather wearer would hear them despite the fact that he was nowhere near. "_Are you insane?_"   
"Maybe," Sora replied in a low tone, definitely feeling like this was _not_ something anyone else should overhear. "Look, we both know that you, me, Riku, Yusaru, Kyo, and whoever else they hang out with will never do it. You said whoever did it would have to be able to defend himself, and he's supposed to be the best around!"   
"_Supposed_ to be, but no one's ever seen him do anything! Besides, he's-"   
"Crazy?" And Sora grinned, an almost feral expression that made Cloud dread what was going to happen. "That's why he's perfect."   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Yeah, it has been scientifically proven that I am incapable of writing any form of multi-chaptered story without some form of trauma. Cloud's accident is actually very light for me. But I hope there's enough other amusing stuff that the one glaring example of my trauma-inducing ways isn't so bad. As said before, review replies and tons of just... really weird fun facts are stuck up in my livejournal, so go check it out!   
Let me know what you think! Bye! 


	3. A Deal is Made

  
DISCLAIMER: Not mine, not mine, never will be mine, neeeeeeever! (Though I wouldn't mind Cid and Squall delivered to my door, in case anyone has a couple of spares...)   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: It's funny; it seems the further I go in this, the more variation I have to come up with on both plots to hold everything together. Trying to stick to everyone's personalities (like Leon not being anywhere near as "social" and "outgoing" as either Petruccio or Patrick) means that I have to twist some things to make them fit - but considering that this is me, I'm haaaaappy about that. I'm a plotbunny addict, after all!   
I'm not as happy with the second half of this chapter as I'd like, but I know it's not going to get any better. Leon in "cold" mode just doesn't work well for me for some reason, so I tried to keep it simple and just make it through, which I did or I wouldn't be posting it. Fortunately he's already improving for me in chapter four, so I don't think there'll be any of the hair-tearing that occured over the last four or so pages this time. And also we get more with Yuffie next time!   
Minor warning in that it looks like the language I'll be using will be getting a little bit worse from here on it. They won't be cursing every other sentence or anything like that, but heck, I've got Cid and Yuffie (who was raised by Cid) as two of my main characters. I'm just filing it under "occupational hazard" and moving on.   
As I said last time, review replies are up in my livejournal! The address for that is www . livejournal . com / users / tairako (copy-paste and delete the spaces), or you can simply click on the link in my bio page. Thanks everyone for reading, and I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!   
(Soundtrack: alternating between "Get Happy" by Bowling for Soup, off their CD _A Hangover You Don't Deserve_, and "Hocus Pocus" by Vanessa-Mae, from her CD _Storm_.)   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
"Hey Sora! He said yes!" Kairi called out as she burst through the door from the Third District the next morning. She was carrying a bag that practically dragged on the ground because of the many books it held, and he politely reached out to take it from her. He had to will himself to not put his arms around her as she handed it over gratefully, but the heavy bag and his own math book in his other arm were sufficient deterrents.   
"Really? He didn't threaten to kill me or anything?"   
"Welllllllll…" Kairi looked up, one finger tapping her bottom lip, as she tried to remember the exact phrasing. "Not _kill_ you, specifically. I think it involved various parts of your anatomy being ripped off and set on fire in his workshop if you did anything inappropriate, but he downgraded it to just the ripping when I convinced him that you wouldn't try anything at all and were perfectly safe."   
Sora blinked. "Oh." _Ouuuuuuuuuuch_, he said to himself, very certain just _which_ parts of his anatomy had been threatened. _No wonder you don't want to piss him off._ "Uh. Well."   
Kairi laughed, reaching up to pat the top of his head like he was a toddler who'd had a nightmare, and he had to wrench his thoughts away from her lowering that arm and throwing it and her other one around his neck… "Don't worry, I wouldn't really let him do any of that to you, and he wouldn't do it anyway. Cid talks big, but he doesn't go through with any of it. Well, hardly any," she amended.   
"Excuse me for saying so, but that doesn't exactly reassure me," he said, still wincing a bit with imagined pain.   
"It doesn't for most people, then they learn better. Come on, let's get started." As Sora's arms were full of books, she pushed the door open and led him inside. The library wasn't really anything special: a little on the small side, as was much of what he'd noticed in this town, with that musty smell of "old books" everywhere and somewhat inconsistent lighting. Kairi led him to a table that was under one of the brighter lights, and he just dropped everything there, earning a stern glance from the one other person in there that they both ignored.   
"Right, so, where are you at?" Sora asked, opening up his own book so she could show him exactly where she was having problems – and he could calm down from the ecstatic high of being with her for an hour.   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
Three days had passed before Sora finally got the chance to more or less waylay Leon and propose the scheme to him. Cloud had limited his protests about what a bad idea this was to one a day, but had flatly refused to help try and convince Leon that he should go along with what sounded, even to Sora, like an absolutely crazy idea. So Sora was by himself as he approached the young man seated at the same café table as before, once again hidden behind a newspaper, and at that moment he would've very gladly traded places with Cloud, who was out of sight around the corner. _But this is for Kairi. Come on, be a man, not a mouse!_   
"Ah, excu-use me," he began, and all the words got lodged in his throat as Leon lowered the paper to glare _right_ in his direction. He wasn't even really _glaring_ and it still felt like Sora's skin was being peeled off from the inside out.   
"Yes?" he finally asked, and even though his tone was relatively neutral, Sora definitely got the idea that Leon could suck out his soul if he wanted.   
"I, uh, I-I just, ah, f-found some money out front and I thoughtitmightbeyourssoisit?" he babbled, nearly senselessly.   
Leon kept that icy gaze fixed on him for another moment or two, then only said "No" and turned back to his paper. Sora fled as fast as his feet could carry him, careening around the corner and nearly into Cloud.   
"Smooth," the blond said as he calmly stepped out of his younger friend's way. "Give up yet?"   
"_Wow_ is he intense," Sora panted, hands on his knees to brace himself.   
"I _told_ you it wouldn't work."   
"But it's _gotta_ work! He's the only chance I've got!"   
"Do you realize how _strange_ that sounds?"   
Sora groaned, still not paying attention to Cloud. "I've gotta find _someone_ who can do this. Someone who won't be as… intimidated." As much as he hated to admit he'd wussed out, there was no way around it. "But who'd do it for no reason?"   
Cloud shook his head. "Here's a better question: who'd have something to gain from Leon agreeing to it?"   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
Practice that day was more intense than usual, especially with what Sora was used to. Master Bersi had paired him off against Kyo, who turned out to be his age, and let them go at it for a long time before telling Kyo to go practice one of the blocks in the mirror and sending Uo, a very quick girl with long brown hair and the only female in the group, in for another free-for-all brawl against Sora. Cloud had warned him that for the first few practices, Bersi would be pitting him against whoever was around to try and get a better feel for what Sora already knew and the styles he could probably learn, but Sora was about to call Bersi sadistic with putting Uo _after_ Kyo. The girl had been training longer than them and was the better fighter; he knew he was going to wipe the floor again, but he wasn't going down without a protest.   
Riku and Cloud were both watching the match closely, since the space wasn't big enough for more than two people to fight at once without almost a guarantee that someone would break something, whether themselves or each other or the equipment. Cloud kept half an eye on Riku, though, one hand resting on the buster sword; the silver-haired boy was watching with far too much interest for his own liking, especially Sora's half, and Cloud could practically see the wheels turning in his head.   
A distraction was needed, and it was time to get this over with. Cloud had agreed to actively participate in Sora's little plot this _one_ time, since he knew Riku much better than Sora did and had a much better "mask." Cloud wouldn't put it at all past Riku to guess why Sora was proposing this idea to someone he'd just met less than half a week before, especially since Riku always assumed that everyone had an ulterior motive.   
It just worked in Cloud's favor that he did, in fact, have one. Not that he had told Sora, although the younger boy would probably get it out of him at some point; he'd managed to keep a few secrets from his inquisitive new friend.   
"Hey," he said as Riku moved past. The younger boy's way of watching a fight also entailed moving around to see it from as many different directions as possible, much as the masters did.   
"Hey," Riku replied, pausing briefly as Sora's blade invaded the space he'd been about to step into. Cloud grabbed the chance.   
"I hear Cid's letting Kairi date now. With a few provisos," he amended as Riku turned back to look at him, those mental wheels now focused on him rather than on Sora. "Such as Yuffie finding a date first."   
Slowly, Riku nodded, clearly sorting through the options as to _why_ Cloud was doing this in his mind. "You heard right, then. She's not happy about it, you know."   
"I bet not." Cloud paused as well as he stepped out of the way of a wild slash of Uo's. The match was winding down; he needed to finish this fast. "I guess you've figured out how to get it all worked out."   
"What are you talking about, Strife?"   
Satisfied that he had Riku's full attention at last, Cloud gave himself a small nod of congratulations and kept going. "You want to date Kairi, but Cid won't let it happen unless someone wants to date Yuffie first. So all you have to do is find someone to take her out on one or two dates, and your problem is solved."   
"Are you volunteering?"   
"God, no," Cloud said, not even bothering to cover up a brief shudder at the thought. "You need someone besides me, someone she hasn't known for more than half her life."   
Riku stepped out of the way of the fight once again; Sora was starting to sway on his feet, but he was somehow still going, though no one had any idea how it was possible. Cloud vaguely registered Uo shouting something in frustration about how the kid _just wouldn't fall over_, but it just served to tell him how little time he had left to convince Riku. "Who, then?" the silver-haired boy asked. "Sora there?"   
"Unless you want him to die, no. Think of someone taller, with darker hair – and a very distinctive scar."   
Riku wasn't in any way an idiot, and he made the connection immediately. "_Him?_ But he's-"   
"Crazy? That's why he's perfect." _Damnit Sora, you have me quoting your stupid lines now!_   
Despite the protest, something about the idea clearly struck Riku's fancy, because he fell silent to contemplate it for several seconds as the match wound down behind him. Finally he looked up, turquoise eyes sharp. "What's in this for you?"   
As Cloud reached into his pocket, Sora picked that moment to finally crash to the mats. Loudly. His practice sword bounced away across the floor, and as Kyo dove to retrieve it Cloud crammed a crumpled plain envelope into Riku's hand. "Just give this to your cousin, all right? I'll know if you don't; that's all I want." Leaving the younger boy staring in bewilderment at the envelope he was now holding, Cloud went to go drag his friend off the mats.   
He was joined by Master Bersi, who grabbed Sora's other wrist and pulled right along with Cloud, laughing with appreciation the whole time. "You're an optimistic spiky-headed moron, kid, but you're good! Talent'll only take you so far; you've gotta have the guts to back that talent up, and you got both in spades. Might even be better than Riku there by this time next year."   
_Oh, SHIT,_ Cloud mentally yelled, stealing a glance up at Riku through the protective cover of his hair. Sure enough, that had been exactly the _wrong_ thing to say in front of him; Riku was now full-on glaring at Sora, who was just now getting to his feet and hadn't really been aware of anything the Master had said. Riku's face quickly reasserted itself into its normally calm demeanor, but the damage had been irreparably done. Cloud only wished that Sora could've seen it as well; for the past few days, he'd been trying to get Cloud to be more social and "make amends" or something like that with his old crowd, and Cloud was starting to wonder just how long it would take Sora to see that not all of that crowd was as harmless as he claimed. Since Sora was, as the master had said, an optimistic moron, his current bet was "a long, long time."   
_The things you go through for friends. NOW I remember why I gave them up._   
"So I lost again, huh?" Sora asked with a grin, rubbing his arm where a nice bruise was forming from one of Uo's swings. There were even fewer pieces of protective padding than there were weapons to use, and nothing they had would fit Sora. He'd chosen to just keep going without it and kept a lot of restorative drinks around. "One of these days, Uo, you're going _down_." But he was grinning as he said that, too, proving once again why Cloud didn't just ditch him: it was just impossible to be mad at him. For most people, anyway. Uo finally gave in and ruffled his hair with an evil grin, causing Sora to squawk and try to evade her grasp, but he was too beat up to do it at all, much less well.   
"You should've stopped them earlier than that," Cloud commented quietly to the Master as the man chuckled at Sora's and Uo's antics.   
"Probably," Bersi said, entirely casual. "But you gotta admit it's amusing to watch."   
Cloud gave his teacher a deadpan look. "That isn't why you didn't, though."   
"Nope," the man agreed easily. "I've been tryin' to see if your friend there has any idea on when it's _better_ to back away and rethink his plans. Since it doesn't look like he does, at all, that'll be the first lesson you'll have to get through his head."   
It was somewhat reassuring, and slightly disturbing, for Cloud to see that Bersi had the same opinion about Sora that he did. But he realized then that if he ever needed advice on how to really stop Sora doing something insane, this man could probably provide some guidance. It looked like he was going to need it.   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
Over the following week, things began settling into a pattern. Sora was subjected to his mother's cleaning and organizing frenzy in the morning once the excuse "I have to learn my way around!" lost its effect, and for the hour before lunchtime he met Kairi in the library to help her with her math. His boast about math being his best subject had been a complete lie; he was fair with it, nothing exceptional, but fortunately for him Kairi was a lot further behind than he was, so he could actually help her without looking like an idiot. It might not have been a date, but he still liked those times; when she got bored of a problem, they'd take a break for a few minutes and just talk while her brain rested. Once he got over his severe case of foot-in-mouth, Sora found out he could actually make her laugh pretty easily by saying whatever came into his head; it was a talent he made frequent use of as they got to know each other a little better.   
The afternoons he'd spend with Cloud, for the most part. Ever since the practice where he'd sparred with Uo, Riku had been polite, but very distant, making doing anything with that group while the silver-haired boy was there very difficult as the group as a whole subconsciously took their cue from him. Sora had no idea why Riku had changed like that, but he kept talking to him at practice, trying to be friendly.   
Sora's parents were glad he'd made a friend so fast, and Cloud's mother was thrilled he'd made a friend at all, so any comments that might have sprung up about what an odd pair they appeared to be were just swept under the table. The boys didn't have much variety in what they did, usually hanging out in the cave and either practicing or just talking, but it worked for them. Cloud had literally dragged Sora to his home one afternoon so his mother could meet him, and she'd proceeded to give Sora as much to eat as he wanted – which made _her_ one of Sora's favorite people in the world.   
Cloud liked to be alone in the evenings, so when Sora went out at night he would usually fall in with the group from the alley. For some reason, Riku didn't join them much at that time of day, so he was free to do whatever he wanted with them. The downside, of course, was that Kairi wasn't usually there either, which was easily attributed to her guardian's rules, but the rest of them made frequent appearances. He got to be good casual friends with Kyo and Yusaru, and the girls were always willing to talk to him – Namine especially. Kairi had definitely been right; the blonde girl didn't jump up and kiss him or anything, but when he was there she stuck just close enough for him to notice, was always one of the first to greet him, and even walked back to his apartment building with him once. Kyo and Yusaru started ribbing him good-naturedly about being a "stud," but fortunately none of them figured out he actually had his eye on Kairi.   
The one flaw in all of this, aside from Riku, was Yuffie. Sora hadn't expected anything to be _easy_ when it came to her, but after two more very brief run-ins with her he began to wonder if they were throwing even someone as intimidating as Leon to the wolves. Unfortunately, Leon himself had disappeared from view, and so Riku (who Cloud was keeping an eye on) hadn't had a chance to propose whatever sort of arrangement he'd thought of. Things were at a standstill until the man was found, and Sora had to be patient even though he found it very hard.   
But one night just after dinner, as Sora was about to work on his math a little more, he saw something odd through the window. He did a double-take as he realized just what he saw, then rubbed his eyes and banged on his head a little to make sure he was thinking straight, but when he looked the scene was still the same.   
It was Cloud, and he was sitting in front of the small fountain in the far corner of the district – and he wasn't alone. With him was a girl Sora had never seen before. She was tall and slender, and very pretty in an ethereal sort of way. She had a very simple pink dress on, but her long brown hair was tied in a tail with a pink bow with a few shorter pieces left to frame her face. Sora's eyes widened in shock as he saw Cloud actually _smile_ at something the girl had apparently said, and the girl began laughing. He peeled himself away from the window as the girl reached over to place a hand on Cloud's arm – his left arm – and even the straightforward math couldn't kill his astonishment.   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
"Oh, that's Aerith," Kairi told him when he described the girl the next day.   
Sora had heard the name before, but he had to dig for it; finally he realized that the girl Cloud had been with was Yuffie's friend. "_That's_ Aerith?"   
"Mmmhm. Why the sudden curiosity?"   
"I, uh…" Sora stopped himself before he could give Cloud away. Somehow, he just knew that his friend wouldn't like this spread around, not even to Kairi; after all, he hadn't told Sora about it. "No reason."   
But then Kairi smiled at him, and he nearly babbled it out as he melted once again. He kept his mouth clamped shut, though it was close. "You're a horrible liar, you know."   
He just had to laugh at that, ruefully, putting a hand to the back of his head. "Yeah, I know. But really, it's nothing – I just saw her last night for the first time." It _was_ the truth. Just, not the whole truth.   
Kairi looked skeptical, so he reached for a distraction. "Why haven't I seen her before this? We've been here for a week and a half." The town was a fairly good size, but there still weren't a lot of people around. He still didn't know most people's names, but he'd begun to recognize their faces.   
"She works in the infirmary during the day, and most nights, too." Apparently Kairi was going to let him off the hook for now, but he highly doubted she'd forget it. "With what Riku says your practices are like, I'm surprised you haven't met her already."   
"Hey, I haven't hit the mats in a week." He grinned as Kairi giggled. "Though I probably would if Master Bersi didn't stop us. But didn't you say Aerith was Yuffie's friend?"   
"Don't ask me to explain it; they're total opposites. Aerith is calm and understanding and sweet and Yuffie is…"   
"Yuffie," he finished for her as she clenched her jaw in annoyance. Any time the topic somehow managed to get onto her stepsister, Kairi started fuming. It was hard to imagine how the girls had _ever_ been friends.   
She took a deep breath and held it for several seconds, then let it out slowly. "Yeah." Then she shook her head. "Sorry, it's just…"   
He held up a hand to stop her apology. "No worries, I understand."   
And she smiled again, that smile that always reduced him to a quivering pile of goo. "Thanks, Sora. You're a good friend."   
He managed to return her smile with a grin. "No problem." But he couldn't help wondering, as they got back to the math, if that was all he'd ever be to her.   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
"Soooooooooo, you do have a type, huh?"   
Cloud looked over at Sora as they lurked around the First District later that afternoon, keeping an eye out for Leon and doing some shopping for Cloud's mother, but he didn't say anything. Since he also didn't threaten to kill him, Sora spoke again.   
"Tall, brunette, likes pink?"   
Again, nothing. He kept right on going.   
"She looks nice, she made you laugh after all-"   
"You're too damn nosy for your own good, Sora."   
The younger boy grinned. "Can't blame this one on me – _you_ two are the ones who were sitting in a public place last night. I just looked out my window."   
Cloud groaned. "You _really_ aren't going to drop it, are you?"   
"Hey, if you really don't wanna tell me, just say so," Sora responded, holding up his hands. "But right now you're just stalling."   
"Fine, I don't want to tell you." Cloud shook his head with a sigh of the inevitable. "I'll probably end up saying everything later, but… not now, all right?"   
"Okay, that's all you had to say." And Sora, true to his word, did indeed drop it. He was an insanely curious person, but he knew enough to respect personal boundaries. Cloud clearly hadn't taken any of his boundaries down for a long time, so it was only reasonable that he want to keep some things to himself. "So what'd your mom want again? Apples, tomatoes, sprouts, and…" He glanced up from the produce cart, looking to Cloud for a reminder of the rest of the shopping, but the blond was peering off into the distance at something. "What is it?"   
Cloud didn't say anything, just nodded in that direction. Sora turned and nearly dropped the tomatoes he was holding as he spotted their elusive quarry. Leon was down the street a little, sifting through something on another cart, not paying attention to anything going on around him. It was the first opportunity they'd had in awhile, and the best one they were probably _going_ to have for awhile.   
"I'll go get Riku." By default, Cloud had become the go-to for the silver-haired boy. If this entire plan fell through, or if it worked but Kairi still went for Riku, Cloud figured it was better if neither Riku nor Kairi ever knew Sora was involved. And as long as he didn't have to do more than occasionally talk to Riku, he was all right with his level of participation.   
Sora nodded, holding out an arm that Cloud dumped the stuff he'd been holding into. "I'll keep an eye out here." Giving him a quick nod in return, he turned and began heading for the doors to the Second District, moving at a fast walk to intercept Riku.   
Just as Cloud had a private lesson time in the morning, that Sora would eventually share as well once his mother calmed down, Riku had one in the afternoon, and it was set to begin in fifteen minutes. With a little luck, he would catch Riku in time for him to go talk to Leon and get back in time; and for once, luck was with him. As he opened the doors to the district, he saw Riku's distinctive hair moving across the large open space towards the alley to the Third District, probably having just left his group in the other alley. It was now or never, and he wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.   
"Riku," he called sharply, and the boy quickly looked at him. "It's ready."   
He didn't have to say anything more than that; there was only one reason that they would talk now, after all. But the seventeen-year-old didn't start moving in his direction. "I've got class, remember?"   
"Who knows when you're going to get another opportunity?" Cloud retorted, then turned and pulled open the doors again. He heard a muttered curse behind him and then scrambled footsteps; Riku had apparently decided that he was right, with much less arguing than he'd anticipated.   
They didn't walk together through the district, but rather in the same direction, Riku following Cloud without looking like it. Just around the corner from the food carts, Cloud stopped and pointed out Leon, now further down the row than he had been but still there. "It's all up to you now." Without waiting for an answer, he moved out from the shadow and began crossing the district, turning into the niche next to the cafe that he and Sora had stationed themselves in on the failed attempt to even talk to the man.   
Sora had plainly had the same idea, because he was already there, holding the bags with the Strifes' groceries. "Figured it was better to get out of the way," he explained, handing one of the bags to Cloud. "Besides, we can see them from here." Cloud had no intention of watching, but Sora definitely did, and he stuck his head out just far enough so he could see, but not necessarily be seen.   
Riku was playing it so casual it was nearly comical, at least for someone who knew what he was really there to do. He strolled down the row of carts looking at what they had to offer, picking up an apple and tossing it up and down like a ball, then strolling down the line some more as he got closer and closer to Leon. Whether the act was to fool Leon, the others out in the district, or everyone, it worked; Riku came right up next to the man without Leon even looking up.   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
"Do you mind if we talk for a minute?"   
The unfamiliar voice caused Leon to look up, wondering just what it was lately that made everyone think he wanted to talk. First that crazy brown-haired boy a week ago, then that woman that just wouldn't shut up, and now another boy - well, young man really – with silver hair. This boy wore a calmer expression than the other one had, though, and although he didn't exactly appear thrilled to be there he wasn't running away in fright.   
"What is it?"   
The boy looked around, folding his arms across his chest in an almost defensive gesture, plainly looking for something and just as plainly not finding it. "In private?" he asked as he turned back to Leon.   
Leon, though, turned away. "I'm in the middle of something."   
"I'll make it worth your while." Leon looked up again, his characteristic half-glare on his face. Was this kid serious? The silver-haired boy – _Riku_, Leon's memory finally told him – backed up half a step, but still didn't run away. "Just hear me out, and if you don't like it you won't have to hear from me ever again."   
Leon stared at him for a minute, then finally shook his head. "Fine." Putting down the loaf of bread he'd been about to buy, he fully turned and fixed his gaze on Riku. "Where in here is 'private?'"   
"This way." Riku began walking in the direction of the Second District, Leon following, but after climbing the first staircase turned abruptly left and ducked down a small alley between one of the stores and a fenced-off terrace area. The place was clean, but seldom used; a primitive wooden wall blocked off the end, with a hole big enough for a normal-sized person to duck through at the bottom right corner. It was about as private as you could get for the First District, as there weren't any shops or merchants down in such an out-of-the-way place, and Leon subconsciously relaxed slightly as the rest of the people disappeared.   
Riku led him down to the wall, but fortunately not through the hole, before turning back to face him. "I've got a proposition for you," he said bluntly, skipping any of the formalities.   
"A proposition?" Leon folded his arms over his chest, leaning against the wall to watch him.   
"Do you know Yuffie Kisaragi?" Riku asked, an odd expression on his face.   
"No. Why?"   
"I want you to take her out."   
"…You what?"   
"Do I have to spell it out?" Riku was clearly getting nervous about something, eyes starting to dart to the end of the alley occasionally, and he began shifting slightly on his feet as though he wanted to move but couldn't. "Look, she has a stepsister that I want to go out with."   
"And how, exactly, does _any_ of this concern me?" Leon asked directly, more than a little fed up at the boy dancing around the subject.   
Riku looked away slightly, then back at him again. "Their guardian won't let Kairi date until Yuffie does. So I want-" A _look_ from Leon sent him scrambling to change his wording. "I'd _like_ for you to take her out."   
He didn't even need to think about it. "Not my problem. You want to date that girl, find some other way to do it." He pushed off the wall and started to go down the alley, but quick footsteps brought him up short as Riku cut off his escape route.   
"If you want, I'll pay for everything. Hell, think of it like a job; I'll pay you for the time itself, not just whatever food or whatever you two eat."   
That brought him up short. Money was tight… As much as it wasn't his problem, maybe this "compensation" would make it worthwhile – and it would be something to do in this too-goddamn-small town. "How much are you talking about?"   
"Say… twenty a week?"   
Leon just shook his head. "Seventy-five or find someone else."   
"_What!_ You've gotta be kidding!"   
"Seventy-five or no deal," he said evenly. "If you want to make this my problem, that's what it's going to take."   
"…Fifty. That's the best I can do." Leon privately doubted that, but the look on Riku's face definitely made it clear that it was the best he thought he could do.   
And fifty was still a lot better than twenty.   
"…Fifty." Riku raised a hand as if to shake on the agreement, but Leon pulled his out of the way. "Now what can you tell me about her?"   
And for the longest five minutes of his life, Leon listened while Riku described the entity that was "Yuffie Kisaragi" to him. By the time the silver-haired boy ran off to his lesson, he was beginning to wonder exactly what the hell he'd gotten himself into.   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
"Well… that's that," Cloud said as he and Sora relaxed. They'd surreptitiously followed Leon and Riku, hiding just out of sight around the corner to overhear their discussion, and had dashed out of the way just before Riku came tearing out in a last-ditch effort not to be late for his lesson. "Nothing to do now but wait and see what happens."   
Sora looked up at his friend, wanting to hear the truth but at the same time dreading it. "Cloud… Do you think this'll work?"   
"I don't know," he replied honestly, shaking his head as he started for their home district. "You've done all you can. Now it's up to Leon… and Kairi." Cloud glanced sideways at his friend, fully prepared to beat this information into him if he needed to. "_She_ has to choose you, you know. If she wants to go out with Riku over you then she will. If you ever manipulate her into doing something she doesn't want to, I am going to hit you so hard-"   
"CLOUD! I KNOW!" Sora shouted, startling a woman who was window shopping nearby. Forcing himself to quiet down, Sora clenched a fist and continued. "I am _not_ going to lie to her or whatever. It's her choice." He let the fist relax as the tension drained out of him. "I just… want her to choose me."   
"I know." Cloud pulled open the doors to the Third District, holding one of them open for Sora to go in ahead of him. The younger boy looked so morose at the thought of Kairi choosing Riku over him that Cloud had to do something, however awkward he was at comfort. He put one hand – the real one – on Sora's shoulder, both for encouragement and as a steering mechanism as he turned him in the direction of his apartment. Food always restored Sora's good mood. "Believe me, you deserve it a lot more."   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
_Maybe it won't be so bad,_ Leon thought to himself as he waited around in the Third District near dusk. There were people out, mostly going home from work, but he paid no attention to them. He'd become used to the feeling of the townspeople glancing quickly at him, and then just as quickly away, in the months he'd been there. Standing where he was, in the half-hidden corner right next to the Second District doors, most people didn't even realize he was there. _She fights, at least. Maybe "taking her out" could be practicing… I haven't fought against a ninja yet, after all._   
Then again, this was also the girl who apparently thought it was fun to nearly jump on people's heads and then run off laughing. There was just no way of knowing how she would react to anything.   
Riku's information had included a basic general description, so when the doors opened next Leon matched up the girl who came through against what the boy had said. Relatively short, with short black hair, green tank top, khaki shorts… If this wasn't her, he didn't know who could be closer. She was actually kind of cute, in a didn't-care-about-her-appearance way, which was a slight encouragement. She wasn't paying attention, but when he straightened up from his leaning position against the wall and cleared his throat, she spun in place faster than anyone he'd ever seen before. "Yuffie Kisaragi?"   
"What's it to you?" she asked bluntly, straightening up from the fighter's crouch she'd half-dropped into at the sound of his voice. He bristled inside a little at the clear implication that she didn't think him a threat, but he clamped it down and managed to keep it out of his voice.   
"I've heard about you." Plainly uninterested, Yuffie simply turned around and kept walking, heading for the closest doorway only about ten feet away. "Is there any reason why men annoy you so much?"   
At that she turned and flashed him a very large grin. "Actually, it's because you're all useless. Anything else? I'm starving and I wanna eat."   
Leon could just feel how easy it would be to snap and start yelling at her, but he somehow managed to keep it in. Barely. "I was wondering if maybe you'd like to fight some time, possibly."   
"Mmmmmmmmmmmno. Time's up, food's on, bye!" she called cheerfully, quickly opening the door and slipping through before he could get a word out in response.   
Growling softly under his breath at the sheer… _audacity_ of this girl, it was only the thought of the money Riku'd promised that convinced him to not just abandon this right off the bat. He needed that money, needed it badly enough to even put up with this _brat_ for a little time. But if he didn't…   
As he walked away, he tried to force himself to think rationally. _Admit it, that could have gone a lot worse._   
The problem was, he couldn't see how.   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Hah-haaaaaaaaaaaaah! We've got it all started! Well, all the romances at least, I've still got a few plotlines to drag in that haven't come up yet. Yes, I'm taking an already complicated work and making it even _more_ complicated. Am I crazy, you ask? Why yes, yes I am.   
Yeeees, as you might have guessed, I'm a Cid fangirl. I just can't get enough of the mental image of him tormenting one of the boys in Righteous Parental Rage - I think it happens in every fic I've got that he's in! So I had to throw in him threatening Sora. Because it's just funny like that ; )   
Don't forget, **review replies are up in my livejournal!** Let me know what you thought! See ya next time! 


	4. Crossed Swords

DISCLAIMER: Still not mine, and I'm still waiting for the delivery of a free Squall or Cid to my door! They promised me ten to fourteen days, damnit!

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry about the slight delay for this one, folks. I meant to try and stick to updating at least once a week, but small things like projects and family reunions dropped in, as well as a slight block on this chapter. But life's been generally good, so all's well that goes well.

One reason I got stuck on this is because _Last Resort_ got _un_stuck - in a major way. I now have four chapters of that story complete, and several others started. Unfortunately, none of them are the next chapter in the timeline, but hey, prewritten chapters are _nice_ to have. It was fun; LR just started itching at my fingers and a bunch of stuff just spilled out. Expect more stuff for that one in the near future.

As usual, review replies and fun facts are up on my livejournal, www . livejournal . com / users / tairako (copy, paste, delete spaces, hit enter).

(Soundtrack: "Midnight Show" and "Under the Gun" by The Killers, off the limited edition of their album _Hot Fuss_.)

And now, on with the show!

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Yuffie… Did I see you talking to a _guy_ out there?" Kairi asked in bewilderment when her stepsister came in the door. The grin Yuffie had plastered on her face quickly fell off as she kept going past the kitchen, where Kairi was leaning out, and down the hall in the direction of their rooms. Kairi quickly followed after her, wondering just what was up with her now. "Come on Yuffie, guys aren't that bad. Most of them are pretty fun. I mean, today Sora-"

The ninja spun, out of patience with the world and especially with her stepsister. "_Stop saying that name!_ You've been saying 'Sora' more than 'Riku' lately, and it's getting on my last _effing_ nerve! _Guys. Suck._ and that's all there is to it!" Kairi had absolutely no way to respond to that, but Yuffie didn't hesitate to stalk into her room and slam the door behind her.

Kairi was left out in the hall, completely confused. Sure, she and Yuffie didn't get along much now, or even particularly like each other, but… that wasn't Yuffie. She wasn't _that_ crazy. But Kairi had no idea what to do, so the only thing she could do was go back to the kitchen, continue making dinner, and wait for Cid to come home. Both of the girls, somehow, managed to keep up a sense of connection with their guardian; both on different levels, but it was there. Maybe he would be able to figure this out.

The pasta she was making was almost ready when the front door opened and closed again, this time much more calmly than Yuffie's entrance, and Cid's gruff voice yelled out "Where are you two?"

"In here, Cid!" Kairi called back, sticking her hand (that was holding a wooden spoon) out of the kitchen and waving it to get his attention. "Come here for a minute!"

"Comin', jus' gimme a moment." She could hear him taking off his coat and hanging it up in the entranceway, and then the thud of his boots on the floor as he took them off and dropped them, and moments later the grizzled pilot entered the kitchen. "Whatever yer makin', it's smells good," he commented, leaning over to look in the pots on the stove.

Kairi pushed him back. "Later. Cid, there's something wrong with Yuffie." She kept her voice low; it was not at all a good idea to let the ninja overhear this talk, though she probably wasn't paying attention anyway. "She went off on me for no good reason, and I mean _really_ went off, not like when we annoy each other. I don't know, it just… it wasn't her."

Cid glanced in the direction of the ninja's room, a little worry peeking through his in-control expression. "You want me t'go talk t'her?"

Kairi nodded emphatically. "Please? It's almost like she's depressed."

"An' Yuffie depressed ain't a good thing. All right." Glancing at the pasta that was boiling merrily away in its pot, Cid asked, "How long 'til that's ready?"

"It can wait another ten minutes."

"Ten minutes it is." Cid absentmindedly pulled a toothpick out from the box he kept on the fridge and stuck it between his teeth, a hangover from when he still smoked and absolutely needed something in his mouth. He left the kitchen, moving down the hall and wondering what exactly would happen with this "talk," until he could knock on her door with quick, sharp beats. "Yuffie?"

No answer.

"You better be decent, 'cause I'm comin' in."

The pilot was more disturbed by the sight in the bedroom than he'd ever let on. It was dark, as none of Yuffie's lights had been turned on, and… it was clean. The ninja was not one who was known for being able to see any part of her floor, much less all of it; when a cleaning frenzy hit, there was usually something wrong. Yuffie was lying on her stomach on her bed, face buried in a pillow, and except for the rising and falling of her back as she breathed she wasn't moving at all. 

"Yufs?" Cid ventured, pulling over her desk chair to sit next to the bed. "If you don' look up I'm draggin' you off the bed." That got some response, in the form of a single raised finger in his direction. "Flip me off all you want, but I'm gonna keep annoyin' you until you talk t'me."

There was a grumbling sound from somewhere in the pillow; he meant what he'd said, and she knew it. The ninja finally looked up, glaring at him crossly. "What the fuck do wanna ask me?"

"I've been hearin' yer outta whack t'day. What's goin' on?"

Growling under her breath again, Yuffie shot a murderous glance in the direction of the kitchen before glaring back at Cid. "Nothing."

"That's bullshit an' we both know it." Cid folded his arms and leaned back slightly in the chair, looking infinitely comfortable and plainly _not_ planning on moving. "You got somethin' t'say about it?"

"Nothing!" she half-yelled, extremely cross, throwing her hands in the air.

"Yuffie-"

"_I mean it!_ You think you can just come in here and make everything instantly better, but you can't! It doesn't work that way, Cid! Just live with it!"

"Yuffie, as long as yer livin' under my roof-"

"Which won't be much longer! When I turn eighteen, I am _out of here!_"

_That_ took him by surprise; Cid had somehow forgotten that Yuffie was going to be a legal adult soon, fully capable of living by herself and with every right to do so if she wanted. "Yer-"

"Leaving, yeah! In four months!"

"_Why?_"

"_Why not?_" she drawled sarcastically, eyes locked with his in a miniature battle of wills. "This place is too small and confining and boring and _everything_ I hate!"

"It's a good place t'live, an' we've got th' shop-"

"No, _you_ have the shop, Cid, you know I'm no good at doing anything with it! I can't make anything, and I can't handle customers! That's you and Kairi's jobs, not mine, and when I turn eighteen I'm gonna go get my own."

"But…_where_?"

"I don't know, somewhere far away from here."

Cid was positively floored; how had he forgotten that Yuffie would soon be able to leave, without him being able to stop her? How hadn't he seen that she'd _want_ to? Having his face shoved into the truth wasn't a fun experience, but maybe it was something he needed… They'd all been in this town for so long, and nothing had varied in four years. Cid could well remember a time when the size of the town had grated on him much as it was doing to Yuffie now; maybe they all needed a change.

But better to let Yuffie cool down first; she plainly didn't want to talk about whatever was bothering her, and it was useless trying to make her do it. "You gonna come eat with us or no?" he asked, doing his best to sound casual.

"Not tonight," she replied, most of the fight drained out of her since he was no longer opposing her. "I'll get something later."

"We'll leave some in th'oven fer you, then." Deciding it would be better to not even mention the real reason he'd come in, Cid stood and replaced the chair he'd pulled over in front of her desk, then started to leave the room. He stopped in the doorway, glancing back at the ninja who had once again buried her head in her pillows, then finally left the room, shaking his head.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Cloud?" Sora asked anxiously as he followed the tall blond through the Second District. "I mean, what if he doesn't-"

"Chickening out on me, then? Didn't think you were one to do that," Cloud replied easily, not pausing in his strides. "It's not like we're gonna tell him."

"Yeah, but he's supposed to be solitary-"

Cloud groaned with exasperation and turned to look at his friend directly. "You didn't seem to care about that when you set him up to take out Yuffie."

Sora had the decency to turn scarlet with embarrassment as he realized just exactly _how_ hypocritical he was being. "Well… he could've said no…"

"Just like he can say no now if he wants. Come on."

The eighteen-year-old had long ago discovered a way to get into the alley that didn't involve going through that door that everyone liked to hang out by, as he didn't much like to see them. The way, however, was a little tricky. He climbed the steps to the terrace with the door to the Gizmo Shop, Sora following, then turned at the top of the flight and eyed the sloping roof before him. In theory, it was simple: jump onto the Hotel roof, pull yourself over to the other side, drop onto the balcony of the Red Room below, and from there to the alley. He'd found, however, that over the past year or so as he'd finally settled into his full height, it had gradually gotten harder. He hadn't attempted it for months, and he wasn't entirely sure it would work now. But the only way he could find out was to try it.

"Watch." He backed up a few feet, then took several quick steps and launched himself off the top step and in the direction of the roof. It went better than he hoped, though not at all like it did when he'd been fourteen, as he managed to land on the roof but started to go sliding off. Quickly catching himself before more than his legs could fall off the edge, he pulled himself into a more secure position and knelt far enough away from the stairs to give Sora plenty of room. "Just like that. Only… not like that."

Sora snickered and nodded, grinning, and eyed the edge for a moment as if calculating. Then, to Cloud's vast surprise, he simply jumped, grabbing the edge of the roof with his hands, and yanked himself into an upwards somersault that landed him squarely on the roof. "Nothin' to it."

"…I hate you."

"I know." Sora's grin faded as he glanced over towards the alley, then back at Cloud, apprehension starting to gather in his features again. "So are we going?"

"Come on." Not thinking about what the return trip was likely to be like, as the balcony was even higher above the alley than the roof was above the stairs, Cloud led the younger boy over the flat peak of the roof and onto the balcony below, then into the little alley-off-the-alley that led to the back door of the most opulent house in the area: Riku's. Fortunately, hardly anyone was ever back there, so no one was around to see the two boys seemingly drop from the sky as they landed on the ground.

It had been four days since Riku had managed to recruit Leon, and as far as anyone could tell that venture was turning out to be a complete failure. No one had seen them talking, at all, and Yuffie herself was as scarce as Leon was these days. Usually she could be found in one area or another, either with Aerith or practicing her ninja skills, but she had strangely disappeared lately. Kairi had told Sora about that rather disturbing night the day after Leon's recruitment, but she was just as confused as the rest of them, as Yuffie also wasn't staying in the house. It worried her, and anything that worried her worried Sora as well, as Kairi wasn't one to worry without reason.

But Cloud had kept surveillance on Leon in the meantime, having learned from Riku that Leon was indeed a fighter of some sort. The blond had run out of people to fight against, plain and simple, and if the young man in the leather jacket was as good as rumor held him to be, he could possibly help him get whatever skill he hadn't tapped into yet outside instead of hiding in him. Watching from the clock tower one morning, Cloud had just happened to see Leon unlock the grate at the end of the alley and go down the dark opening, disappearing from view almost immediately, and he was pretty sure they'd at least partially solved the mystery of where he vanished to all the time. He still wasn't exactly sure why Sora had agreed to go, but he figured it couldn't hurt the boy to have someone else to spar against either.

"Shit," he cursed quietly as he saw the grate. There was a bright, shiny padlock holding it closed – and that lock wasn't open. "He's not in there, then."

"Hang on, let's look first."

"How? We can't get in."

"Now that's where you're wrong." Sora just seemed to be full of surprises that day as he pulled a slim piece of wire from inside one of his gloves and bent the end into a hook. "It's just a cheap lock, it shouldn't be too hard."

Cloud stepped aside to give him room to perform the technically illegal activity. "Where did you learn to pick locks?"

"From my friend Selphie, back on the Isles. She taught me and Tidus, but I was better than him- ah-_hah_." He'd been poking the pick around in the padlock while he was talking, but at his minor exclamation he suddenly yanked down on the pick and gave his wrist a peculiar twist. The top of the lock opened smoothly, and he quickly pulled the wire out and flicked the lock all the way open, stepping back to let the grate swing out. "Come on, if you want to check it out, let's go." Apparently Sora was in much more control now, as he started off down the tunnel in the wall before Cloud.

The path was very wet, as was expected; what they didn't expect was that the area would be lit. A diffuse light much the same as the light in the magician's cave seemed to almost radiate from the rocks themselves, enabling them to at least see where they were going. The water quickly deepened almost to the point of them having to swim, with various sized rocks to cover the bottom of the "stream" to turn an ankle on if they weren't careful. But the area opened out just ahead of them, into a small cave that was floored in rocks eroded smooth by the frequent gusts of water through there, and on the other side of the cave was a doorway with a stair leading up. Someone had hung two battery-powered lamps on the walls to provide some more lighting. And standing in front of the doorway was the elusive Leon – with a sword pointed right at them.

"What in the hell are you doing in here?" he asked bluntly, not lowering his weapon and giving them his traditional minor glare.

Sora had gotten his foot stuck (half on purpose, Cloud suspected) between two of the rocks and was currently pulling himself free, so Cloud was the one who was left to face Leon. He stopped walking when the water was ankle deep, folding his arms and watching Leon closely, not nearly as nervous as either Sora or Riku had been. "So you do swordfight."

"Do I need to ask again?" Leon asked, still holding up the sword, though Cloud could tell there was something odd about the weapon. He couldn't see exactly what, though. But Leon was holding it almost like a… gun?

"No. I wanted to see if you'd like to fight."

The sword didn't lower, but Leon's glare lightened a little as Sora finally came up next to his friend. "If you wanted to spar, why aren't you armed?"

"It's a little too big to go climbing over buildings with," Cloud replied as he stepped up onto dry land. As he did, Leon finally took a step back and lowered his weapon, and Cloud could see the gunstock that was in the place of the usual sword hilt, as well as the bullet chamber that seemed to be built directly into the blade. "What… is that?"

"A gunblade. You don't see them much in this town." Leon was sizing up the young man in front of him. He looked to be about his age, and was actually a little taller than him, something that was fairly rare. The arm he could see had all the muscles he'd expect in a dedicated fighter. And, most importantly, he wasn't running away. Leon didn't particularly mind being left alone, especially by the people in this town (most of whom didn't seem to even think that anything existed beyond their gates), but even he got tired of it sometimes. Even the other boy with the blond had done it, though he seemed to have improved some as he was no longer fleeing in fear.

"You two are the ones who're always up there," he said as he finally recognized them.

The brunet gave him a puzzled look. "Up where?"

"In the cave. It's just up those stairs."

The two looked at each other, both definitely surprised, and the younger one took off up the stairs at a trot. It wasn't long before he yelled down, "Hey Cloud! There's a moving platform up here! It levitates!"

"Well that should keep him occupied for a few minutes," Cloud said under his breath, looking at Leon once again. "So are you willing to give it a try or not? If you don't want to, that's all right; but I'd like the chance to fight against someone new."

Several moments passed, in which it was easy to hear Sora's muffled steps from above as he explored something up there, and Leon simply watched Cloud with those piercing eyes. When the blond didn't back away or start shaking, Leon finally nodded. "Get whatever you fight with. I'll take you."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sora could only stare at amazement at the scene before him. After a quick trip down the waterway again to lock the grate they'd left open, he'd followed Leon and Cloud up the stairs and onto the platform, which turned out to take them into the dilapidated house on the island that they had never explored. After jumping over the large stepping stones and retrieving Cloud's sword from the dojo (and Leon immediately understanding why he hadn't carried it when they were climbing over buildings), Sora had settled in near the magic door to watch the fight that took place on the small beach.

And what a fight it was.

Sora was actually faster than both of them in terms of running and footwork, but not by much – and they were both _much_ faster and more powerful than him with the swords themselves, even despite the hulking mammoth Cloud used. They swung and parried so fast that it was impossible to tell where one blade stopped and the other began until they pulled apart, and neither of them pulled back on the force of the blows. The loud clangs that came at least once a second echoed around the cavern, making it sound as if four times the number of people were fighting, and sparks flew as the blades hit each other repeatedly. They ducked and turned and spun quickly, and Sora realized just how much Cloud had been holding back in his training.

_And a good thing, too!_

It seemed like forever, but in reality it was only ten minutes before Leon called a halt and they both stopped exactly where they were, breathing harder but not falling over. Neither of them was even very flushed with exertion as they sized each other up once more. "Why are you favoring your left side? You could've had me that time," Leon half-demanded, resting the gunblade over his right shoulder.

"I have to," the blond replied. Sticking the buster sword point-first into the ground and bracing it with his right bicep, Cloud pulled up the sleeve and took off his left-hand glove, once again showing the gold hand. "This doesn't give me the control I need with that side, so I have to find other ways to do it."

"None of your teachers have ever taught someone in your position, have they?" Leon seemed to be almost… relaxing. It was very strange for Sora to see, after being one to shudder just from him walking by.

Cloud shook his head. "Master Bersi only has one eye, but that's different. Why? Do you know something I can do?"

"Maybe," Leon replied speculatively, studying Cloud's artificial arm. "I… knew someone like that, once, and he fought as well or better than anyone I'd seen." And then Leon turned to look at Sora, and somehow he seemed more human than he had before. "So what about you?"

"What about me?" Sora's eyes widened like saucers as he figured out what Leon meant. "_Practice?_ Against _you?_ I'm already dying enough, thanks!"

"Don't let him fool you," Cloud remarked casually as he pulled the glove back up his arm. "He's good. But he hasn't been doing it for as long as we have."

"And _he_ already beats me up every day," Sora said, pointing at Cloud. "If I come home with any more bruises Mom's gonna think I'm being abused or something."

"You are, we just don't use that phrasing."

"Watch it, Fluffy."

Leon just shook his head, a little bewildered by the easy repartee the two of them had. To all appearances, both physically and with their personalities, they were complete opposites, and yet neither one of them walked away from the other. Maybe it was possible that this town had some people worth it in it, as futile as that had seemed at first.

"Ready for another round?" he asked, raising the gunblade again.

"Let's get to it." Cloud pulled the buster sword from the ground and lowered it into his two-handed guard position. "I've got a reputation to improve."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

An hour later, the two by-now-exhausted young men had lain down their weapons and were sitting on the beach they had churned up with their movements, regaining their breath and their strength. Sora stood nearby, skipping large, flattish rocks over the water with surprising skill. _Well,_ Cloud thought, _not very surprising when you remember he's lived next to the water all his life… God, being trapped in this town must be killing him._

"Would you please stop that?" Leon asked as one of the rocks misfired and landed with a loud PLOIP in the water. "My ears keep ringing as it is." Towards the end, when both fighters' resources were starting to flag, Cloud had gotten in a lucky swing to the top of Leon's head; apparently the gunblade wielder was still suffering the aftereffects, and the echoes certainly couldn't be doing much to help him.

"Sorry." Sora grinned sheepishly and dropped his last two rocks back on the beach, coming back over to flop down in front of them, looking back and forth between the two. "I'm surprised you guys aren't dead."

"Just give it a few minutes," Cloud said wearily. "I'm halfway there already."

"Heh, now you know what I feel like all the time."

"Rephrasing: give it a few minutes, and _you'll_ be halfway there."

"But it was a good fight," Leon said, feeling more comfortable with these two already. He and Cloud had worked each other into the ground, something he hadn't had the opportunity to do in a long time, and in a way even the ringing of his ears felt good. "You've got talent."

"So have you." Cloud groaned a bit at he stretched, bruises and cuts making themselves all too easily known. "Sora, can you-"

"No problem." Already anticipating what Cloud would ask, Sora pushed himself to his feet and headed for the door to the Third District, walking through after it slid up and beginning to whistle as it closed behind him. Leon winced at the sound.

The two young men sat there in silence, watching the lake and the old house on the island and trying _not_ to think about their injuries. After a few minutes in which Sora didn't return, Leon finally decided that it couldn't hurt to ask. "Do you know Yuffie Kisaragi?"

Cloud wasn't in physical shape to jump, but the question definitely startled him. It took him a moment to answer, but he didn't think Leon took it for anything unusual. "I used to. What about her?"

"What's _wrong_ with her?"

Cloud snorted; he definitely understood the sentiment behind the question. "I don't know. She used to actually talk to people and have more than one friend, but after my accident she just sorta up and left everyone, in a way. Even her stepsister. Why?" Sora's little plot seemed to be pulling him in further and further. He was curious; how much of the mini-conspiracy would Leon actually admit to?

Apparently, all of it. "That kid Riku offered me money if I'd 'take her out'." He snorted a little, shaking his hair out of his face. "Too much to turn down, and by the week. I thought it wouldn't be that bad, but that depended on her agreeing to spar – and she turned that down incredibly rudely and slammed a door in my face."

Cloud sighed in disgust. "Sounds just like Yuffie."

"If I didn't need the money, I'd back out of it. Do you think there's any way you can convince her to just fight me?"

"We don't talk anymore, or I'd try. I honestly don't know how to do it."

The door slid open again and Sora came back, remembering to kill the whistling before the echo caught it. He carried two small bottles in his hands. "Sorry it took so long, but the dojo was out. I had to sneak into the infirmary and there was an annoying amount of people there today."

Cloud looked up, freezing in the middle of accepting his bottle, with a look on his face that clearly said that he didn't know whether to be indignant or not. "Sora, were you stealing from the infirmary again?"

"No, I just didn't want to wait in line so I picked the supply room door and left the money on the counter," Sora said as he rolled his eyes. "I didn't want you siccing Aerith on me – or Yuffie, if Pink Girl decided to send _her_ after me."

Leon, plainly not at all concerned about the possible illegal status of the potion he was taking, pulled open the stopper and swallowed the strong-smelling liquid inside in one gulp, hunching over and coughing as the equally strong taste hit him full on. A moment later, Cloud followed his example, and as he began coughing Leon sat up, rubbing his eyes a little. "You got the high-powered ones, didn't you?" he asked, a little hoarsely, as Sora sat down again.

"Yep, and you two better appreciate 'em, they cost twice as much." But both Leon and Cloud looked much better, almost entirely back to normal. The only difference – and Sora knew he could _never_ laugh at this – was the knot hadn't entirely disappeared from the top of Leon's head, making his hair stick up more on one side than the other.

Cloud shuddered one last time then finally sat up straight, feeling much more like his usual self. Glancing at Leon, he finally made a decision, and started to speak before he could change his mind. "So you want to know more about Yuffie?" Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sora jump a little, but Leon seemed not to notice.

"If it would help, yes."

Cloud simply turned and stared pointedly at Sora, and Leon followed his gaze. Sora started to shrink back under the intense stare of both pairs of blue eyes. "What?"

"Just tell him."

"Tell me what?" 

"But…" Sora started to protest, then met Cloud's eyes again. "But… Oh, all _right_," he reluctantly agreed, deflating a little. Gathering his courage and hoping Leon decided to refrain from killing him, Sora slowly looked at him. "It was my idea."

Leon didn't expect that; this innocent-looking kid was involved in this at all, let alone the "mastermind" behind this ridiculous scheme? It just didn't make sense – until he remembered the first time he'd ever talked to Sora. "Was that why you approached me that day, when you said you'd found the money?"

"Yeah." Sora had the decency to honestly feel bad about everything; his head drooped slightly, and he didn't meet Leon's gaze. "See, she has this stepsister-"

"Who he's infatuated with," Cloud broke in.

"-and I'd like to go out with her-"

"He turns into an idiot every time he _sees_ her."

"Shut up! But her guardian is Cid, and Cid's protective to the point of insanity, and he won't let her date until Yuffie does. And Riku wants to go out with Kairi too, and they've known each other longer and are better friends and he's got a lot more money. Kairi'll probably pick him, but… I had to try."

If this had been anyone else, Leon knew he probably would've hit them and just left. But he was fast discovering the same thing that Cloud had – Sora was just too genuine, too hopeful, to really be mad at. So while part of him was completely indignant at being used this way, another part of him was reminding him that he already knew he was being used – and as he was being paid quite well, it wasn't really being used. Really, nothing had changed except for the identity of the one behind it all. "So since Riku has more money, you decided to use him to get me."

"Actually, that was my idea," Cloud admitted. "And it was more because he wouldn't turn tail and run from you in fright. He came up with the payment thing on his own."

"Hnn." Even all the logic couldn't stop him from being slightly pissed off, and he fell into his normal unresponsiveness while staring over the lake.

"So, what do you think of Yuffie?" Sora asked, sounding slightly hopeful since Leon had decided to not thrash him.

"In a word, infuriating."

The sixteen-year-old winced. Not much of a likelihood, then.

"What can you tell me about her?"

Cloud saw his friend's face light up completely at Leon's question, and he shook his head, hiding a smile, before beginning to fill Leon in on what he knew of the history of the young ninja.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"You know, the Competition's coming up soon," Riku remarked to Kairi the next day as the normal group gathered in the alleyway to have their daily chat session.

"Less than a month, right?" Kairi asked with a smile, brushing a lock of hair out of her face and giggling as Mela pushed Kyo away from her and he tumbled to the ground. "Are you going to do it this year?"

The silver-haired youth grinned back. "Of course I am. It's the Competition, after all."

Kairi giggled again as Kyo latched onto one of Mela's ankles, apparently determined to annoy their friend today. "I wonder if Sora's going to… Does he even know about it?"

Since she wasn't looking at her companion, Kairi missed the brief flash of indignation that sped across Riku's features and was just as quickly stomped down. "I'm sure Cloud's told him about it."

"Yeah, I bet he has. Are-"

"So," he quickly interrupted, smiling at her when she turned to look at him. "After I win it, do you want to go around with me?"

Kairi's eyes widened briefly – it was the first time he'd ever asked her on anything approaching a real date, and she nearly squirmed with happiness. "If I can get away from Cid without getting you killed, yes."

He chuckled a little, and unobtrusively reached over to lace his fingers in hers, being careful not to let any of their friends see, which wasn't as hard as it could have been as Yusaru and the rest of the girls were now trying to stop Mela from kicking Kyo in some very uncomfortable places.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"All right, listen up!" Master Bersi barked that afternoon as the class finished loosening up for their lesson. "In just four weeks we've got the Competition, and you all _better_ not embarrass me! Now, Riku, Kyo, front and center and let's see if that blockin' practice paid off. Kyo, defensive moves only-"

"What's this 'Competition' thing?" Sora asked Cloud as the two friends pulled their swords out of the rack. After finally finishing the unpacking, Sora's own blade had finally been uncovered in a box of his father's dirty laundry for some reason, and Sora was able to fight with a weapon he was familiar with. It was probably a bad idea to rely on the same weapon all the time (what if it broke or was stolen, after all?), but his skill increased a little with his own – which meant that his injuries _de_creased, which he heartily approved of.

Maneuvering them into a safe corner to watch Riku hack away at Kyo, Cloud folded his arms and began to explain. "It's a traditional excuse for the town to have a party, essentially. Bersi and Sanero started it when Sanero arrived in town about thirty years ago; there's a tournament in the morning for any of the students who want to compete, and there's one winner overall. The whole town turns out to watch – or to sell stuff after the tournament's over."

"So we're put on display for everyone to see?"

"If you want to think of it like that, yeah. You don't have to enter if you don't want to, you know."

Sora shrugged, wincing as Kyo missed a block and Riku scored a solid hit. "Maybe I won't… Except for Kyo, all of you are a lot better than me. I'd probably walk away with a few broken bones instead of a few bruises."

Cloud just shook his head. "You keep underestimating yourself. You're better than you think you are, you know." Glancing around quickly to make sure that no one else was listening, he lowered his voice so only Sora could hear. "And even if you lose, think of what Kairi'll say just for participating when you've been here for less than two months…"

That thought brought the younger boy up short, and he quickly looked at his friend. "Kairi's gonna be there?"

"_Everyone's_ gonna be there," Cloud responded. "Plus, afterwards is about as good a chance as any for you to take her on a 'date' of some sort."

"I'm entering," Sora immediately declared, exactly as Cloud knew he would. Sora really was too entirely predictable at times, but in a strange way, it was part of his charm.

"I think everyone is. Including Yuffie."

"Wait, they let ninja compete?"

Cloud shrugged. "Why not? She's the only ninja trainee right now, and fighting against people in other disciplines increases your own skill. She's good, you know – nearly beat me last year."

Sora whistled lowly, shaking his head a little. "So who won last year? Riku?"

"No, I did." At Sora's surprised look, Cloud shrugged once more. "It was luck. He'll probably beat me this year."

And all of a sudden, Sora got another flash of inspiration in his eyes – the type that Cloud was rapidly coming to dread. "Hey, what about this… Maybe we can talk Leon into entering."

The blond hesitated; that idea wasn't as crazy as what Sora usually came up with. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more appropriate it seemed. "I don't know if even Riku can keep up with him." Several of the blows that Leon had landed with his gunblade had actually hurt Cloud, something that hadn't happened in quite a long time. "This might be just right to knock him off his high horse."

Sora, though, had a slightly different reason for wanting to involve Leon in the Competition: Yuffie was participating. From the talk the three of them had had in the cave, there was no hope for Yuffie to fall for him if they simply waited for her to do it. This would force them to at least be around each other for a day – they needed all the chances they could get.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AUTHOR'S NOTES II: I've been planning that climb over the Hotel since the very beginning. I just _love_ the mental picture of Cloud scrabbling to hang on to the roof. And oooooh, mystery with Yuffie! What's wrong with her? Well, I ain't tellin' - yet ; ) You'll just have to stick around to find out!

Don't forget, **review replies are up in my livejournal!** Let me know what you thought! See ya next time!


	5. Things Unplanned

DISCLAIMER: I'm too busy with school stuff to even worry about the fact that I don't own this.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry about the slight delay with this one folks, but the crunch time's rolled around for me over here. Our show opened last week, and we still have projects out the wazoo for my classes, which I'm going to go work on as soon as I finish these notes.

I actually don't really have much to say today, as I'm also dead tired. Just the usual review replies and fun facts are up in my LiveJournal, www . livejournal . com / users / tairako

(Soundtrack: "La Tortura," Reggaeton version, by Shakira.)

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Stretching in the library after Kairi had left one day, Sora groaned and flopped forward onto the table, sinking into his rather depressing thoughts.

Good: Kairi was going to the Competition.

Bad: She was going with Riku.

Good: Leon was actually a human being.

Bad: He'd been called away three days ago and hadn't said when he'd be back.

Good: He was getting better at fighting.

Bad: It still hurt a heck of a lot.

Good: Yuffie hadn't tried to kill him lately.

Bad: _She_ was nowhere to be found, either.

It seemed like all his plans were crumbling around his head. Sure, this new life in Traverse was actually going pretty well, and he was active and making friends, which for the new kid was always really hard. But nothing was _exactly_ right, and that just made him want to beat his head against the table. He even sort of did it, raising his forehead just a little off the wood and letting it fall down again with minor "thumps."

"Are you okay?"

Sora looked up with a little surprise at the light voice. "Namine?"

The blonde was standing there smiling, that slightly enigmatic yet friendly smile that he'd never seen anybody else make. "The one and only. Finished tutoring?"

"Yeah, not too long ago." Sora dropped his pen on the table and motioned to the chair that Kairi had recently vacated, and Namine sat gracefully. "What're you doing here?"

She giggled a little, making sure to keep it quiet. "I'm not illiterate, you know. I just wanted to borrow a book to read at night."

"Anything in particular?"

"Maybe one on magic. Supposedly I could learn it, at least some of it."

Sora whistled – lowly, as they were still in a library and didn't need to disturb anyone else that was there. "That would be _cool_… I'd know a mage."

She tilted her head, giving him a quizzical look. "There weren't any on the Destiny Isles?"

"Nah- Well, rumor was that there was one that lived in this tree house-type thing that was on one of the more secluded islands, but that was it. My mom said he was just some crazy old hermit anyway."

"Sounds threatening," Namine said with a smile.

Sora chuckled. "Yeah, we played over there all the time, and we were really loud, so I think he probably was just a crazy old hermit. Otherwise we probably would've been burned to ashes for some of the stunts we pulled."

"Do you regret moving here?" she asked, folding her hands on the table.

He paused, not saying anything for a long time, and not meeting her eyes, instead looking at the book in front of him and fiddling with something imaginary on the table. "I mean…" he said after awhile, not looking up. "I like it here. The people are nice, I'm making friends… It's a little small, but it's still nice. But I lived _there_ for my whole life, so… I guess I still think of that as home."

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I didn't mean to make it painful for you."

"What? No, no, Namine, it's okay, it's okay, really," he hastened to assure her. "I mean, so hey, I'm a little homesick, that's only normal, right?" he asked with his usual smile that was more like a grin. "But I like it here, I really do. Don't worry."

She smiled a little at his hasty reassurances. "You really mean that?"

"Uh-huh!" he replied, nodding vigorously. "Everyone's been really cool so far."

"So…" she asked hesitantly, looking at him hopefully, "would you like to go around after the Competition with me?"

He froze. "What?"

"I know they've told you… After the Competition – which you _are_ going to be in, aren't you? – there's a sort of festival, where everyone just walks around and has a good time, and people sell food and drinks and it's… just a lot of fun." And she smiled, still watching him with that hopeful look that only made him feel terrible, because she obviously liked him while he didn't like her like that. And he hated making people feel bad, even unintentionally.

"Well? Sora?"

"Namine…" he began slowly, trying to find the way to phrase this that would hurt her the least but still make her understand. "Do you… want this to be a date?"

She turned faintly red, but much to her credit she didn't look away. "Would that… bother you?"

"I…" Oh god, this was _hard_. "Namine, you're a good friend, and you're very nice, but… I'm sorry, but I don't like you like that," he finished, almost in a rush and not quite looking at her. He didn't want to see her hope withering.

"Oh," she said very quietly, and he still couldn't look her directly in the eye. "I'm… I'm sorry, then, Sora."

"Don't be… And you really _are_ a good friend, I just… yeah," he finished lamely, having lost his words again at hurting someone he'd grown to respect. "If you want to go as friends… then definitely, of course I'll go with you. But not… a date."

She was silent at the end of his rather awkward rambling, and he cautiously glanced at her, only to find she was watching her hands, which seemed to be laced together in her lap. When she still didn't speak for several seconds, he nearly decided to kick his own ass for hurting her _this_ much, even unintentionally. "Namine, I'm sorry."

"N-No," she finally said, standing slowly and still not quite looking at him. "It's… I can't ask you to feel something you don't. I… as friends, yes?" She started backing away, and then turned to go, stopping by the bookshelves that cut his and Kairi's study table off from view of the rest of the room. "Is… Is there someone else?"

"…Yeah," he replied quietly, unable to not give her some sort of explanation. She waited, back still to him, but he didn't provide any more details; knowing it was Kairi would only hurt her more. "I'm sorry."

"She's… she's lucky," she whispered, and then was gone from his sight. Sora groaned, feeling like the most horrible person in the world, and rested his head on the table again, cursing his stupidity.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Yuffie peered over the railing carefully, looking left, then right, and finally straight down. She was in luck; it was one of those rare times in Traverse when the First District was empty, at least as far as she could tell. They were few and far between, and if she didn't want anyone to see her she had to take this one. Without thinking any further, she grabbed the railing in front of her in both hands and kicked off the stone balcony, flipping easily over the balustrade and landing in a crouch on the cobblestones. The high jumping lessons had been tough, but they were _so_ worth it.

"That looks challenging." The ninja spun at the voice only to find the guy in black who had been pestering her for a fight all those days ago was seated at one of the café tables – one of the ones she couldn't see from the balcony above the café itself. "But definitely useful. Where did you learn it?"

"Why the hell do you care?" she asked, rolling her eyes and pulling her rust orange gloves back up.

He only raised an eyebrow, ignoring the glass of water in front of him. "Maybe I'd like to learn." In its own way, the not-question was just as sarcastic as Yuffie's, and she gritted her teeth. This one could all too easily piss her off, apparently… But she knew how to solve that problem. Without answering, she simply turned and started walking away.

Footsteps behind her, however, immediately proved that this guy wasn't going to give up. "Why won't you answer my question?"

"Why do you have to ask me?" she shot back, finally turning back to face him. "Anyone in this town can tell you who taught me, so just leave me alone."

"Perhaps I could, if I felt like talking to any of them – or they felt like looking me in the eye."

"You're not _that_ frightening."

"And you're not _that_ crazy," he replied, in that same rather sardonic tone he'd used before.

Yuffie crossed her arms over her chest, glaring up at him – he was _tall_. And, she had to admit, not bad-looking at all. _But even morons can look good. Look at Riku, after all_. "How would _you_ know that?" she countered, just as sardonically.

"Because the crazy ones won't look me in the eye."

Something – she couldn't tell exactly what – differed in his voice; she wasn't sure how, but she knew he was telling the truth then. Or his version of the truth, anyway. And she could see why most of the wimps in this town wouldn't be able to do it: this guy just exuded intimidation.

Of course, intimidation had only worked on Yuffie when she was little. "Well good for them, then. Goodbye." And once again she turned to leave – but before she could take one step, she spotted someone lurking in the shadows, leaning against the brown wall of a building with – she just _knew_ it – a very, very large smirk on his face.

Ignoring the tall young man in black for the moment, the ninja stomped over to the other person hanging around the First District, not noticing that the other had followed her more slowly. "Why in the _hell_ are you spying on me?"

"Spying on you?" Riku repeated as innocently as he could, though still smirking. "It's a crime to be in a public square, now?"

"Maybe not, but I used to never have to look at you, thank god, and lately I've been seeing you everywhere and it's getting on my last effing nerve."

The silver-haired boy shrugged. "Coincidences are funny like that."

"Does this have anything to do with Kairi?"

His eyes narrowed a little. "I don't think that's any of your business."

"You just stay away from her."

"Try and make me, you crazy bi-"

WHAM.

Unfortunately, Riku never got to finish what he was saying, as the ninja's knee was very quickly – and painfully – introduced to a rather sensitive part of his anatomy with a solid half-kick. Groaning and clutching himself, Riku toppled over onto the stones, curling into a ball, and Yuffie merely nodded once, then strode away in the direction of the Third District.

Leon had paused several feet away, though still close enough to hear what was going on, and winced in sympathy at Riku's sudden sprawl on the ground. But still… from what he'd heard about the boy, and seen for himself, he probably deserved it for something he'd done at one point or another. He glanced after Yuffie as she stormed through the doors to the Third District, somehow managing to slam them behind her even with their sheer size, and couldn't help but mentally congratulate her.

_She might be crazy, she might be infuriating… But one thing she definitely isn't is boring.  
_

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Namine?" Kairi called as she entered her friend's house in the First District, one of the only actual houses in the entire town. "Namine, where are you?" Namine's parents, though understanding, were never home until late, so she had called Kairi. Her friend's tear-filled voice had prompted Kairi to beg Cid to let her go out, and it was probably that same voice, that Cid had heard as well when he answered the phone, that had made him agree to let her go. She didn't have much time before she was supposed to be back, but she would stay there as long as she could to help her friend.

"Back here," she finally heard, and Kairi quickly made her way to her friend's first floor bedroom. Expecting her, Namine had left the door open, and Kairi closed it after herself as she entered.

The blonde head could just barely be seen over a mound of blankets that she'd wrapped around herself despite the warm temperature, and her face disappeared behind her hair. She was holding one of her old stuffed animals in her lap, a panda as big as her torso that could serve as a comfortable pillow if she chose. All in all, the sight scared Kairi a little. Namine was always so put together, so in control, and here she was, reduced to a huddling mass because… because…

Well, she hadn't told her yet, but Kairi was going to find out.

"Hey," she almost whispered, approaching slowly and sliding onto the bed next to her friend, wrapping the blanket mound in a quiet hug. "What happened?"

A sniff came from somewhere behind the hair, and a slim hand reached up to wipe away something from her cheek. "I'm a complete fool."

"Shhhh, no you're not," Kairi said, trying to comfort her a little as Namine had done so many times with her. "You're a lot smarter than me, and you know it."

"But I made a fool of myself."

"I bet you didn't. What happened?"

A slight hiccup came as the breath caught in Namine's throat, and then she continued. "It was-" another hiccup "-just after you left the library. I found Sora in there, and he looked miserable, and I thought he was homesick because he moved from so far away and so we started talking about it, but he told me he liked it here and he liked all of us and so I asked him-" her breath hitched in her throat and she shuddered a little; Kairi rubbed her shoulder blade soothingly, encouraging her to go on. "I asked him if he wanted to take me to the festival after the Competition."

"…And?" Kairi urged a little after Namine seemed unlikely to go on, ignoring the little kick to her mind that came out of nowhere and she couldn't quite identify.

"…He likes someone _else_," Namine whispered. "Some lucky girl back on the Isles probably, but he didn't say her name, and he kept apologizing for not liking me, and he was so _nice_ about it and it only made it worse." Again that hand came up, scrubbing harder at her eyes. "He even said he'd go with me as friends if I wanted to."

That little prod to her brain was still annoying Kairi, but she shoved it aside to concentrate on her friend, who needed her understanding right then. "You know he didn't mean to hurt you," she said comfortingly, still rubbing Namine's shoulder through the blanket.

"I _know_, that's what made it worse," she replied, voice cracking a little. "He's the nicest guy around and _meant_ those apologies and that only made me like him _more_. But he doesn't like me and knowing that for sure just hurts and I made a fool of myself."

"You didn't, Nami, you didn't," Kairi said quietly. "I know he wouldn't think of you as a fool."

"But he doesn't think of me like that either, and that's what hurts."

Kairi honestly had no idea of what to say to something that was, almost cruelly, entirely too true. So she simply stayed with her friend for as long as she could, offering comfort and a shoulder to weep on.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"YUFFIE!" Cid's enraged voice rang down the hall later that night. After he'd slammed the phone down into the cradle. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU KICK HIM IN THE BALLS FOR!"

In her room, Yuffie groaned. The little tattletale. Well, to be fair, he probably hadn't run _straight_ home to his daddy; the bastard had a little more honor than that (and being brought that low by the "crazy ninja" was certain to hurt his precious self-image). More likely than not he'd persuaded his cousin to "fix him" after he'd managed to get home, and his father had just found out about it somehow. Ansem, giving credit where credit was due, was entirely too observant.

"YUFFIE!" Cid was right outside her door now, and obviously _not_ planning to go away.

"I had the right! He called me a bitch!"

"THE FUCK?"

"Just get in here, Cid!" Kairi was going to be home any moment as it was nearly their curfew, having sprinted out earlier when Namine had called but _swearing_ to be back before dinner. The _last_ thing Yuffie wanted at the moment was Kairi hearing all the yelling; she didn't need her trying to _defend_ the little dirt bag. Yuffie honestly had to wonder how long it would be before Kairi realized just what kind of person Riku was – or if she ever would.

The door opened and Cid came in quickly, pulling over the same chair he'd sat in while trying to get her to talk more than a week ago, only this time he was a lot more pissed off. "You got thirty seconds. Explain."

Yuffie shrugged negligently, not caring. "He tried to call me a bitch. I stopped him from finishing. The end. What does it matter, Aerith just fixed him up anyway."

"Well she wanted t'beg you _not_ t'do it again in case his father found out."

"Wait, that wasn't Ansem?" Yuffie asked, finally sitting up.

"_No_, that was her." Cid plainly wasn't any more pleased to hear the information of Yuffie's latest "escapade" from the girl in pink than the silver-haired man. "An' yeah, she wanted t'talk t'you."

"Then why didn't you call me to the damn phone!" Yuffie exploded.

Their tempers were an even match, and Cid exploded right back. "Because I can tell from her voice now just _when_ she's gonna say somethin' like that! Damnit Yuffie, you can' do things like that!"

"You don't like him anymore'n I do," she said sullenly, folding her arms over her chest.

Cid rolled his eyes. "That don' matter." But he was wearing down. He obviously didn't like the idea of a boy he didn't particularly like insulting one of his charges; Yuffie knew for a fact that, overprotective or not, Cid didn't approve of Kairi's friendship with Riku much more than she did – something about the young man just rubbed him the wrong way. And, for all that Yuffie liked to startle people and "keep them on their toes," he knew that only real provocation would make her actually hurt someone on purpose. And her guardian he might be, but Yuffie had always proven to be just as stubborn and independent as… well, him. There was no way he could ground her and have it actually _stick_, as she'd simply refuse to acknowledge his punishments and go on her merry way. So when all of that was totaled up… "Look, jus' don' do it anymore, all right?"

"I hold no responsibility for my actions if he insults me."

He groaned. "Yuffie…"

"All right, all right," she finally gave in, huffing a little and pulling up her pillows to lean against them. "I won't knee him in the balls anymore. But he's a fighter, he should know how to defend himself by now."

"Yeah, well remember he never got into th'punchin' an' kickin' side of things. An' I'll take even bets that he didn' think you'd do that." Their yelling matches came and went in blurs, as fast as the wind. They started with no warning and ended just as quickly, usually within five minutes – or less – of beginning. It was just how they were, an infinitely strange relationship between caretaker and charge, but it worked for them, in ways that made Yuffie actually respect him as she probably wouldn't anyone else. Even with the yelling they'd done just moments before, now Cid was lazing in the chair exactly as if it was his own favorite broken-down recliner, an air of ease and sharing a private joke surrounding them both.

Yuffie _knew_ that, deep down, he would've _loved_ to see her do it, knew that he thought Riku needed a take-down as much as she did. But he had to keep up some semblance of disapproval for the world at large, so he raged for a moment, and she knew he needed to and raged back a little, and then it was over.

Yep, somehow it worked for them, though no one could say how.

"Don't tell Kairi, all right?" Yuffie asked.

"Wasn't plannin' on it, but why not?" the pilot asked, leaning back in the chair a little and tilting its front two legs off the ground.

Yuffie shrugged a little, the motion slightly awkward with her prone position on the bed. "She still worships the ground he walks on. He's gonna tell her, yeah, but it'll be tomorrow and we can fight about it then." She paused. "Yeah, tomorrow is good."

"All right, whatever you say," he replied, a little skeptical, but willing to let her do this her way.

Yeah, he would've loved seeing it in person, all right. Maybe if she was paired against him in the Competition, she'd do it again just so Cid could see the look on his face.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Kairi!"

The voice from the shadows and the sudden hand on her arm made her shriek and whirl to kick the unknown "attacker," but when her thoughts caught up to her and she recognized who it was she pulled aside just in time. "Riku! Don't startle me like that!" he was a _little_ too good at just appearing out of nowhere, and she began to calm her breathing as he released her arm.

She couldn't help thinking, though, that Sora wouldn't have scared her like that to get her attention.

"Kairi, do you know what that-"

"Riku, I need to tell you something _really quickly_," she interrupted him, looking quickly at her watch to make sure she had even a little time to talk. She flipped out the time-setting dial and twirled it ten minutes behind what it had read; she could always show Cid that for proof that she had _thought_ she was on time.

"About what?" Riku asked, the tone in her voice stopping him from launching into his tirade against her stepsister.

"Namine." She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the alley where he had, though she didn't know it, made his deal with Leon, the one place in the First District that was mostly guaranteed to be unoccupied at this time of day, as people went home for dinner. Riku followed her there, waiting for her to explain. "She asked Sora to go to the festival after the Competition with her and he told her that he didn't like her that way."

"And?"

"And what?" she repeated, a tad annoyed that even after years of friendship with the girls that he wouldn't realize just _what_ that would mean. "Riku, she's in tears. If Cid didn't insist on me being back, I'd still be back there right now. You spend more time with him than the rest of us with your lessons and everything – could you just talk to him? She said that he said there was someone else, but he didn't say who, so maybe there's not really someone – could you just sort of… nudge him a little? He told her that she's a good friend, but they could be so perfect for each other." That little kicking was back, but once again she shoved it away, determined to help her friend. She was planning on grilling Sora herself the first chance she got, as well, but having more than one person couldn't hurt.

Riku, though, didn't seem to agree. "Well, if he doesn't like her…"

"Riku!"

"Okay, I'll talk to him. No guarantees, though." After all, Sora _had_, even if it was unintentionally, put one of his friends in tears. The least he could do for her was try to find out why, even if there was no way that anything could actually happen between them.

And it was all worth it when Kairi beamed at him. "Thank you," she said, hugging him and then – to his vast surprise – kissing him on the cheek. "I have to go _now_," she insisted, pulling back from him and taking off at a dead sprint for the Third District, hoping to avoid her guardian's wrath.

He dismissed it as unimportant for the moment that he hadn't had the opportunity to tell her about Yuffie.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The next day, Sora was seated at the table he and Kairi always shared at the library, both wanting her there right then and dreading when she walked in. He knew there was no way she didn't know what had happened the day before with Namine and him, but he didn't know how she'd react. And the fact that she was five minutes late, when she'd never even been close to late before this, was definitely not helping his mental state one bit.

At last he heard the door open, but the almost haphazard placement of the shelves prevented him from seeing who entered. And when he finally did catch a glimpse of the person maneuvering around the bookcases, he was severely tempted to just hide under the table and pray she left.

"There you are," Yuffie said boredly as she saw him before he could put his brilliant plan into action. "I got sent to tell you she ain't coming today."

Since Yuffie wasn't gutting him with her shuriken, he figured it was safe to ask a few questions, though he stayed poised to spring away at the first sign of preparation for attack. "Why not?"

"Cid wanted her help with something this morning." The obvious question – _why aren't you helping, too?_ – sprang to his mind, but he immediately squashed it as something that she _would_ gut him for. "So she says she'll be back tomorrow."

"What's he need help with?"

"I don't know, something or other with the shop." The ninja's eyes, which he could now see were a rich brown, suddenly focused on him with laser-like intensity, studying him as if he were a bug pinned to a card, which was exactly what he felt like. He had to concentrate very hard in order to not wriggle. "So what's the deal with you?"

"…Huh?"

"I mean, you come here, and you're nothing special, and she's been talking about you more than that moron lately." Somehow he just knew that the "moron" Yuffie was referring to was Riku, and he couldn't help an internal celebration that Kairi was actually talking about him. "There's no reason for her to be driving me crazy and yet she is. So what's the deal?"

She folded her arms, shifting her weight to her right foot and tilting her head at him in a way that showed that she wasn't going anywhere until she got an answer. So he dug for one to give her, because he honestly didn't know himself. "Well, I'm… I'm new, so I guess there's still some sort of novelty or whatever. Give it a month or so and she'll be back to talking about him more again." He'd had a large struggle to keep the bitterness at what he assumed would be his fate – with almost every indicator Kairi was giving pointing to Riku, his optimism was fading – out of his voice.

"So you guys aren't insanely in love or something?"

Sora felt his entire face burst into red as he somehow managed to squawk "_Yuffie!_" She smirked a little, which did _not_ make him feel better. "No!" Not because he didn't _want_ that – but because it was true. "She doesn't like me like that."

"But _you_ like her." The ninja was entirely too observant, and she was starting to grin with this discovery of another torture victim. "Don't try to argue, you're red as paint! You _do_ like her."

Sora groaned, letting his head fall forward into his hands and digging his fingers into his hair. "Yuffie, just go _away_."

"Oh, no, it's just getting interesting." To his horror, she pulled out a chair and swung it around, sitting on it backwards and resting her head on her arms after she folded them across the back. "You realize you've got no chance, right?"

He decided the best thing to do would be to just not respond.

"I mean," Yuffie continued anyway, "not only is there Cid's rule, but there's Riku – or should that be the other way around? Anyway, I'm not about to date any time soon, so you couldn't date her even if she wanted to. And even then that prick is still there and everyone knows he's after her, too."

"Just leave. Please."

"Okay." Apparently Yuffie had completed her torture regimen for the day, as she easily stood up and slid the chair back under the table. But before she left, she shrugged. "Look, I'm not trying to be a bitch, I'm just telling you the facts. You know the truth hurts sometimes."

He just shook his head. "Don't… Don't tell Kairi, all right?" he asked, knowing it was useless to deny it further.

That brought her up short. "Why not?"

"It's her choice." He wasn't about to pressure her into choosing him, exactly as he'd told Cloud. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he did that.

When he looked up a moment later, Yuffie's look had lightened a little, and she was watching him a little closer – and a little less threateningly. "You really mean that, don't you?"

"Yeah."

"All right then, I won't."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Leon had taken to hanging around the vast cave with Cloud and Sora, though sometimes they moved down into "his" area, the waterway, for a change of scenery. If anyone had told Sora a month before that his two closest friends in this town, of the guys at least, would be the social recluse and the perpetually frightening, he would've laughed himself silly while rolling on the ground. On the Isles, he'd had lots of friends, being the sort that just made them easily, but his best friends had been Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie – all of them easily a match for his energy and enthusiasm for mischief and just as loud, or louder, than him.

But this town was weird. It seemed to be turning him into an entirely different person, except he wasn't any different. He still felt and acted exactly the same; it was the circumstances and situations that had changed, and now he was an Outsider, in the company of other Outsiders, but he was finding he preferred their company a lot better to the ones in the Group.

Not that he minded at all. Kyo and Yusaru and the girls treated him well and were friendly; he _did_ consider them friends, and they considered themselves his friends. But he just wasn't as close to them as he was to Cloud, which was incredibly odd to explain. A place in that Group should have been his, but for some reason it really wasn't. Whether that was due to Riku, as Sora knew Cloud would insist, or just to the fact that he _did_ prefer the company of the older young men, was a question he couldn't answer and, he was finding, he increasingly didn't _want_ to answer.

Leon wasn't _close_ to them, yet, but there was a camaraderie building between him and the other two. He still hadn't told them anything about his past, why he was in the town at all, his family, whatever, but he was speaking to them, speaking as a human rather than the walking glacier that Sora had originally had him pegged as. He definitely got the impression that no matter the amount of pestering, Leon would never share anything until he was good and ready, and so Sora let him be as Cloud did, waiting to find out more about this strange person.

But Leon certainly didn't mind telling them about Riku's "mishap" with Yuffie. The retelling had made both Cloud and Sora wince in sympathetic pain, and then Cloud began laughing his head off; apparently the years of mutual ignoring and detesting overrode any expected "poor guy" feelings. Even Leon started to chuckle, agreeing with Cloud that he'd probably had it coming for something or other. Sora, however, couldn't bring himself to join in.

His conversation with Yuffie earlier meant that he finally had some other facet of her personality to work with other than the crazy antagonist, and even if she thought him an idiot he knew she wouldn't just up and kill him. Or up and kill anyone, really. So why would she do that to Riku? He'd continued being distant, if polite, to Sora, but he'd never been _bad_. Sora'd had hope that one day they could overcome whatever had put Riku off; if Riku gave it a chance, he was pretty sure they could be good friends. What had he done to get the ninja _that_ pissed off at him?

"Sora?"

He shook himself out of his contemplative state and looked over to Cloud, who was sitting propped up against one of the rock walls today. "What?"

"So you _are_ awake. Help me convince this guy it's a good idea to enter."

"Enter what?" Leon asked from his customary position leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

They still hadn't had the opportunity to talk to Leon about participating in the Competition, since the day that Sora had heard about it was the day Leon had disappeared, apparently away from the town completely, for the past few days. He hadn't told them where he was going or why; he just showed up again when he came back. Sora had the feeling that he did that a lot.

"You tell, you know more than me."

Cloud shrugged and launched into the canned explanation, almost exactly the same as the one he'd given Sora in the dojo, with the difference being that Leon didn't interrupt Cloud as he spoke. The brief history of the tradition, the festival afterwards, and exactly what it entailed to enter – the only real prize was the knowledge of your win and the admiration of the townsfolk. And who would be entering, that they knew of; everyone in their classes except for Kyo had decided to go ahead and do it, Kyo saying he would wait until the next year.

Leon listened silently, taking it all in before making a decision, and when Cloud was done, simply asked, "Who in the hell came up with that name?"

Cloud chuckled. "This town isn't long on imagination, you know. Take a look at some of the shops again."

"Even so, that's… very close to the limit." Leon shook his head. "I'll have to think about it."

"What's there to think about?" Cloud asked, lounging a little more against the wall. "You fight, you do well, and people leave you alone 'cause they're afraid of you."

"They already are afraid of me."

"Well at least they'd have a reason to be, then."

Sora shrugged, scooping up a round, flattish stone and skipping it across the lake. The stones on the beach were rapidly disappearing with that habit of his. "If he doesn't want to then he doesn't want to. But don't you think it'd be good to fight someone besides Fluffy, Leon?"

Leon made a noncommittal noise of agreement in his throat, and both Sora and Cloud knew that he would at least think about it before rejecting it out of hand. But Sora knew that waiting for him to decide right then was futile; quite likely they wouldn't know if he would do it until the actual day arrived and he showed up or not.

Time for a change of topic. "So guess who came to the library today."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Will you just go _away_?" the ninja groaned as she entered the Third District later that day, only to see the young man in black moving across the open space as if he owned the place. He stopped and looked at her, face neutral, but she could tell somehow that he was sardonically amused.

"I was planning on doing just that, actually," he said, nodding to the doors to the First District that she had just walked through.

"Well I'm not stopping you," she muttered.

"You are; you're in the doors."

Yuffie groaned again and marched forward and a little to the side, then spun and held out a hand. "There, one no-ninja set of doors just for you, Blackie."

"It's Leon."

She snorted, noting the lion's head on the sleeve of his jacket and the silver pendent that dangled over his white shirt. "Appropriate."

"I think so."

"Goodbye." And she turned and began heading off again.

Leon, however, didn't move. "You do realize you don't scare me, right?"

"Oh, gee, thanks for telling me," she replied sarcastically as she maneuvered around him; he was standing in the direct path to the steps and her home. "I'll be sure to remember to send you a card at the holidays."

"Is it really so hard to tell me who trained you?"

_Why_ wouldn't he just let her leave? She stopped and turned to face him once more, tired of this and wanting something to eat. "Master Carran. There, happy?"

"Very."

"Why do you want to _know_, anyway?"

He shifted his weight, crossing his arms in what she could tell was a habitual gesture, still watching her as closely as she was watching him. That scar between his eyes was really very startling… "Is it really so hard to believe that I might want to learn to jump like that?"

"Well, yeah," she replied frankly. "You look too big for it."

And he shrugged, just as negligently as she could. "If he says I am, then I am. There's no harm in asking, is there?"

A slow grin spread over her face. "If you can find him." And with that she tore off in the direction of her apartment, making it across the square and through her door in five seconds flat and leaving a fairly startled Leon in her wake. She was right. He had absolutely no clue where to find the man.

Except for one: the dojo.

Apparently it was time to pay a visit to Cloud and Sora's other haunt.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Master Bersi had roped Cloud into fighting two-on-one in the alley outside as the room wasn't big enough for a good battle like that indoors, pairing him off against the twins and letting all three go nuts. The rest of the class was inside, Uo and Kyo paired off to work on Kyo's defense (which was pretty pathetic), while Sora had been assigned to practice his basic stances and attacks again, as they'd been starting to slip just a little as he worked on the fancier techniques. He was concentrating fiercely, watching his reflection in the mirror for every error he could see, when all of a sudden a silver head appeared in the reflection next to him and he jumped in surprise. Riku gave a sort of ironic smile, giving Sora a chance to calm down before starting the conversation.

"What'd you do to Namine?"

Of _all_ people to ask him that, Riku was the last he expected – though probably that wasn't very smart of him, since Namine was also a good friend of Riku as well as Kairi. "What happened to her?"

"Kairi caught me yesterday and told me that you made her cry. So, again, what did you do to her?"

Sora groaned, rubbing his forehead with one hand, feeling a headache beginning to come on. He was already feeling like enough of a jackass about this… "I didn't mean to make her cry, I swear."

"But you still did."

"Look, I'd make it up to her if I could; she's my friend, too. But I can't."

Riku watched him closely. "So there is someone else, then?"

He had no idea how Riku had found out about that – probably from Namine – but he wasn't going to tell him any more than he had told Namine herself. "Yeah."

"You're not gonna tell me her name?"

Sora shook his head, still watching the floor. And something in Riku's head clicked – he wasn't sure what, but something was telling him to press this farther. Perhaps it was the way he wouldn't meet his eyes… "Why not?"

"It's none of your business, is it?" Sora shot back, still not looking at him.

"It became my business when you made my friend cry." It was a low blow, and Riku knew it, but Sora's wince right then was just a fraction of the hurt that Namine herself was carrying now. "You can't force someone to feel something they don't, but can't you just do something with Namine and see if it'll work?"

"Riku, she's my friend, I won't delude her into thinking something's possible when it's not."

And so Riku played his trump card. "Kairi would really like it if you tried."

This time, it wasn't Sora's wince that made a suspicion – that had a lot of evidence – click together in his mind. It was the color that Sora turned. Faintly, so faintly one would be hard-pressed to see it from much father away than he was, Sora turned a dim red, almost as if he were embarrassed by the suggestion.

Or the suggestion made him nervous.

Sora liked _Kairi_.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Tolja I couldn't keep myself from making this plot even more complicated than it was to begin with .:snerks:. Ahhhh, I have fun...

Remember, **review replies are up in my livejournal!**

Tell me what you think! Bye!


	6. Hidden and Seen

DISCLAIMER: Stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiill not mine. Hell, I don't even know where my glasses are right now, which is a severe problem.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: And chapter six! Believe it or not, I had chapter seven done before I ever wrote a word for this one - when you see chapter seven, you'll see why. So a lot of this was trying to bridge the gaps between five and seven, and set up for things I need to happen beyond seven. This story's coming to feel more and more episodic to me - that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's not the usual form I write in, and so it jars me just slightly when I reread it. But I have so many people and so many things going on that if I didn't hit the high points like I'm doing, it would take absolutely forever to do this.

Anyway, varied chapter coming up - but one that I think is pretty fun. Don't forget, review replies and fun facts are up on my livejournal, www . livejournal . com / users / tairako (copy, paste, delete spaces, hit enter), and sit back, relax, and enjoy - because chapter seven is _gigantic_. Now I'm off to hunt my missing glasses. See ya (no pun intended)!

(Soundtrack: "Melissa" by Porno Graffiti, from _Full Metal Alchemist_ - the first opening song.)

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sora wasn't entirely sure how it happened, but somehow a week passed without him really knowing it. What with Namine avoiding him, Kairi trying to wrench information out of him, finally agreeing to practice against Leon (and getting beaten just as badly as when he fought Cloud), and trying to prepare for the Competition, keeping track of time completely got away from him. It was only as he returned from a rather uncomfortable night of hanging out with Kyo, Yusaru, and the girls (who apparently didn't know about the Namine situation specifically, but knew that _something_ had happened) that he realized there was only a little over two weeks left until the Competition. The subject had become such a regular part of his life that he ignored it now; the repeated references passed right over his head. They still didn't know if Leon was going to participate or not, as he hadn't brought the subject up again and both he and Cloud knew better than to repeat themselves. He had no idea how he had lost that much track of time, but it had happened, so there was no use lamenting over it.

He'd gotten in the habit of spending a little time every night going over the math he was supposed to help Kairi with the next day so he would look like he knew what he was doing; she was improving in leaps and bounds, and one day she'd probably surpass him. But for right now he was still ahead of her, and intended to stay that way, so his credibility wouldn't go down in flames. He was fully intending to go back to his apartment and hit the books as he walked home – but when he entered the Third District, something caught his eye.

Any nightlife Traverse had (which wasn't much, unfortunately) tended to be concentrated in the First District, with only private parties given by residents drawing crowds in the Second and Third, and those were few and far between. So if someone wanted to avoid large crowds of people at night, the Third District was a good place to do it in, just as Cloud was doing right then.

Except he wasn't avoiding them alone.

Cloud was once again seated in front of the small fountain in the corner of the district, where there was enough light to see by, leaning against the wall behind him and one arm (the metal one) propped on his knee. With him, sitting with her legs tucked neatly under her body, was the pink-clad girl Sora had seen him with before: Aerith. Yuffie's friend and, he now knew from Kairi, Riku's cousin.

Sora started to grin. There was no way Cloud could avoid it this time.

Neither of them had seen him yet, as they were talking quietly with each other, Cloud looking more genuinely relaxed than Sora could ever remember seeing him. With his friends, Cloud smiled and made jokes, but the smiles were never untainted by something else and the jokes were usually at least a little acidic. Apparently there was something about this healer girl that put him at ease, that drove the bitterness out of Cloud Strife, an amazing, almost impossible feat.

She heard him first as he crossed the square and turned to look at him; her eyes widened a little and she nudged Cloud, pointing to him. Sora knew very well the look of resignation that passed over Cloud's face when he saw his friend, but Sora just grinned and stopped in front of them, looking at Aerith. "Hi, I'm Sora," he told her, sticking out a hand for her to shake.

With a light chuckle, she took his hand, not shaking it but simply holding it and smiling at him. "I'm Aerith… Though I suspect you already knew that." Her voice was almost musical, and very gentle, yet lively, and Sora began to understand just how Cloud could be so at ease around her. She radiated peace the way Leon radiated intimidation to the uninitiated. It would probably be interesting to put them both in a room and see which "radiation" came out on top – or if Leon softened at all. He could even see how Yuffie would like her – she just felt like one of those people it was impossible _not_ to like. Someone that even Cloud could talk to.

"Nice to meet you at last, Kairi's talked about you a little – and him, too," he added, indicating Cloud almost as an afterthought. "Though more Kairi."

Aerith looked at the blond young man with an amused smile, letting go of Sora's hand to rest one on Cloud's arm. "You haven't even told your best friend? Cloud, I'm disappointed."

"There's nothing to tell," Cloud said, shrugging a little, though without the annoyance that Sora would have expected. "We're friends, every once in awhile we meet up and talk."

She smiled and shook her head, looking up at Sora. "I'm his healer. But I'd like to think I'm his friend, as well. Thank you for being there for him; you've helped him quite a lot in the past few weeks."

"Aerith," Cloud protested, turning – Sora was _completely_ shocked to see this – somewhat red at the young woman's comment. "You're gonna give him a bigger head than he already has, and that's the last thing I need."

Sora grinned again. "It'll end up almost as big as yours, then." He laughed at the half-indignant, half-guilty look on his friend's face. Deciding to give them their privacy now that he'd actually met the ever-elusive girl, he started to turn away and raised a hand to wave over his shoulder at them. "I've gotta get in, I'll see you guys later."

"Maybe I'll see you at the infirmary – and next time, come to me instead of picking any locks." The hint of laughter in Aerith's voice just made him laugh and give her a mild salute, and then he began trotting home once more.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Kairi, for the last time, _no_," Sora insisted as they walked to the library the next day, turning his red face away from her.

"Soraaaaaaaaa." The girl dragged his name out in both a groan and a demand, and he knew that she was just _not_ going to give up on this. "I'm your best girl friend, I have a right to know."

Fortunately the angle of his face prevented her from seeing his wince at her phrasing. Ever since the Namine incident, Kairi had been trying to get him to tell her the name of the girl he liked. He half-suspected that she didn't think there was a girl at all, and was only using that as an excuse to not go out with Namine. The thing was, if there really had been no girl, he would've just made up a name to get her to stop saying anything, but since the girl was Kairi herself he didn't want to tell a lie that would come back to bite him later. So he put up with it; she only did it for a few minutes a day, and it could have been a lot worse.

"Kairi, _please_, just _drop it_."

And finally she did, as he knew she would. "All right, all right." She sighed, kicking along a small stone with her shoe. "But someday I want to know."

"Someday," he agreed. Someday he _would_ tell her – but not right now, not with their friendship still building and Namine and Riku and… the whole mess.

"…Sora? What kind of girls _do_ you like?" she asked suddenly. He looked at her half in shock, and she hurriedly justified the question. "I'm not asking what's she like, I just got curious! I mean, we've been talking about this for days now, and… well, I know what my other friends like, so what about you?"

He didn't answer for a minute, but she could tell he was thinking, trying to pull everything into order. "I like… girls I can be friends with, and who can laugh."

She giggled, hiding her mouth with a hand. "I could see how you'd need that."

_Oh god she looks so cute when she does that_. He grinned back at her, managing not to blush at his thought. "And someone who likes jokes, and having fun, and getting into trouble…"

"You bad boy," she replied with another grin.

"Not too much trouble, though, 'cause then people start to think you're the cause of _all_ the trouble around and that doesn't help anything. And, uh…" He tried to come up with something else, but anything else he said would point Kairi directly back at herself, which wasn't what he wanted. "I guess that's it, really. What about you?"

She blushed faintly. "What _about_ me?"

"I just told you what I like in girls, it's your turn to tell me what you like in guys." _So I can see if I have even a little chance with you…_

As he had, Kairi didn't answer for a few moments, still that barely red color as she thought it over. "I guess… a lot of what you want. I mean, crushes are fun, but after that's all gone you need to be friends, you know?" He nodded in perfect understanding. "And someone who can laugh… and make me laugh. Someone who listens to me but can think on his own, who doesn't take himself too seriously. Oh, and tall is good."

Damn; tall was reserved for Cloud and Leon, not him. Still, her other stuff wasn't too far off the mark with how they already were… Maybe he really did have a chance.

Maybe. If Riku vanished off the face of the world.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Riku was frowning at them from his place around the corner at the other end of the alley where Kairi and Sora were standing, the two having arrived at the library but not gone in. He could tell just from watching them that they were close; and really, that didn't matter to him – well, only a little. It wasn't his place to say who Kairi could or couldn't be friends with, and he knew if he ever even _thought_ about trying it she would kick him in the knee, but he respected her too much to even try. But watching Sora proved to him that the new kid did, indeed, like his best friend – the girl he himself had had a crush on for a year. It was all too obvious if you were paying attention for it, in the way that he spoke, that he moved, that he looked at her.

But Riku wasn't going to do anything about it. Hell, he couldn't blame Sora for falling for her, either; Kairi was just one of those girls that was made to draw in the guys. He also knew that Sora would never admit it to Kairi; he would've done it long before this if he was going to. And he knew that he was the better fighter. Unless Kairi had something to draw her attention away from him, she would go on liking Riku as she had for he didn't know how long. And when the Competition rolled around, he'd fight Sora and win, and Kairi would congratulate him with that special smile of hers and they'd walk around the festival hand in hand, enjoying the rest of the day together.

But that didn't mean he had to like Sora having a crush on her. Not at all.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Leon couldn't believe he was out this early, but there were the facts. Even though he wasn't a late sleeper, Leon wasn't in the habit of leaving his apartment in the First District before one in the afternoon, what with one thing and another to take care of. But now it was before nine o'clock in the morning and there he was, walking through the doors that separated the First and Second Districts, heading for the little room where Cloud and Sora spent a good portion of their waking time when the three of them weren't together.

Now that Sora's mother had finished her unpacking and arranging, she had turned him loose in the mornings and he was free to take his "private" lesson along with Cloud, who was his teacher almost as much as Master Bersi. They both looked up as he pushed open the doors, shock registering on both their faces at seeing him _there_, and both stopped in their warm-ups without really realizing they had done it.

Master Bersi was no less surprised than they, but unlike them he didn't know Leon as anything other than the rather alarming young man who showed up in public once in awhile. Before either of his students could react, he'd planted himself firmly in front of Leon, frowning as though he was trying to solve a difficult problem, arms crossed but still clasping the hilt of his sword. "Can I help you?"

If there was one thing Leon knew, it was how to behave towards people who were armed when you weren't _and_ outranked you. Stamping down his own frown at the man's assumption that he was going to try and threaten them or worse, he bowed quickly and respectfully. "I'd just hoped to watch, if that's all right with you."

Cloud shook his head, finally moving up next to his teacher. "Come on in, Leon, we're just about to get started."

"Yeah," chimed in Sora, with his rather odd gift for diffusing a situation. "He's about to kick my butt again, if that's still interesting to you."

Bersi turned to look at his students, asking the expected question with his expression rather than his words, and Cloud simply shrugged. "He's our friend." Despite Bersi's rather startled reaction, he didn't try and explain any further, instead simply pointed out to Leon the best place to stand to avoid the occasional flying weapon or body. After a moment, Bersi just shook his head and placed it firmly from his mind, and, as Leon settled into the place Cloud had indicated, began barking out orders.

These lessons were nothing like the free-for-alls that he'd inflicted on Sora in the boy's first week; these were controlled, precise drills, repeated over and over and then sped up until Sora was moving at the speed he would in a fight. It always started simply, with the most basic attacks and defenses, and as the hour went on would grow more and more complicated until when they finally did do them at full speed, it was almost as if they were fighting for real. Neither of them used a live weapon for this, but rather the wooden practice swords, which could still break a bone if swung hard enough.

Leon stayed in his corner, watching, and despite the bad start slowly felt his respect for Bersi grow. While he was trained, and trained his students, in a different style than Leon himself used, he was clearly a good instructor, an accomplished fighter on his own merit, and was good at judging when a fighter's resources were failing and what a pupil still needed to learn. He had the definite feeling that whatever the man with the eye patch chose to teach stuck with his students, whether they wanted it to or not. In that way, he reminded Leon of some of his own former teachers.

It was clear these types of lessons were only for Sora's benefit if you took it in terms of mechanics, but Cloud was certainly learning something as well – how to be an instructor. Fighting was Cloud's life; his injury made him unsuitable for some other jobs, but he pressed on with his fighting even with the pain that wearing the artificial arm brought him occasionally. Bersi definitely knew that, and so he was doing everything he could to prepare Cloud to find work he would like when his training was complete, which would only be a couple of months in the future, not too long after the Competition. Whether he stayed in Traverse and signed on to help Bersi out, or went somewhere else, he had as much, or more, of a chance at landing a position than anyone else.

After an hour, the last ten minutes of which had been spent in improving reflexes with Bersi calling out attacks and defenses that Sora had to immediately perform, the master called a halt to everything and told them both to cool down before they left. Leon hadn't said a word the entire time, and finally Bersi turned to look at him again, the frown still on his face but much less severe. Leon waited for him to decide how to best phrase whatever question he was going to ask, and finally the instructor simply came right out and said it. "Why in the hell are you really here?"

"I just wanted to see one of their practices. And see if I could speak to Master Carran."

"Wha'd'you want with him?"

"I was hoping he would be willing to teach me the trick to jumping from tall things and not breaking my head open."

"Huh?" Sora voiced from where he was stretching out his aching arms.

"Really, Leon? Why?" Cloud asked.

He simply shrugged a little. "It seems useful."

Bersi's frown hadn't disappeared, but it had lightened as Leon explained, and now he was staring off into the mid-distance, obviously thinking about something. "Carran… Carran… Y'know, I haven't seen him in over two weeks. Strange, now that I think about it…Used to be he barely left this place."

A subtle frown also crossed Cloud's face as he stored his practice blade in the rack and came up next to his teacher, Sora only a step or two behind him. "Two weeks? It's been that long?"

"Yeah, came down here to get somethin' in the middle of the night and found him snoozin' on the bench over there," Bersi confirmed, motioning to the heavy wooden bench shoved in the corner. "He does that a lot; I just woke him up and sent him home."

"I don't remember him ever being around the couple times I walked in on Yuffie practicing here…" Sora added. "I don't even know what he looks like."

Bersi shook his head, stepping over to put his own sword away at last, having held onto it for the entirety of the lesson. "I think I'll drop by and see what he's up to. As for you two, we're done for now, so run off and destroy somethin'." Sora just grinned at that, and turned to head out of the dojo, whistling on the way, with Cloud following. Leon was about to go as well when Bersi caught his eye once more, and somehow he knew that the man was no longer wary of him. "You interested in joinin' our classes? You move like a fighter."

Leon shook his head. "No, thank you." He hesitated, but then decided to just go ahead and ask. "But if you have a moment, could you tell me a little more about this 'Competition' of yours?"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Aerith was getting quite adept at reading Cloud. She was a perceptive person; after moving in with her uncle and cousin a year before to study healing under Machie, the elderly woman who ran the Traverse infirmary, Cloud had been one of her first patients, and she could immediately tell that he would be a hard nut to crack. But something about him kept compelling her to try and crack it, talking to him every time he came in for his monthly checkups about nothing at all, until finally he began responding. She'd actually gotten him to smile, and to laugh, and she'd been right: it looked quite natural for him to smile. He wasn't meant to be so isolated, even though it was of his own making, and she felt privileged that she was one he would let in.

And Sora's arrival had helped him even more than he knew, she thought. It had been after the island boy came that he'd sent that note to her and they'd begun meeting, and talking, outside the infirmary and the roles of patient and caregiver. She got to know more about him than just the facts of his life in those talks, and she was plenty smart enough to realize that the attraction she'd felt from almost the beginning was mutual. Still, neither of them took the next step – actually saying something about it – being content with the way things were for the moment.

So it was incredibly obvious to her that he was preoccupied when he came in for his checkup, absent-mindedly detaching his sleeve and setting it aside for her to inspect his arm, making sure that everything was still working and that no infection had slipped in. With these new mechanical limbs there was always a risk of that, one they hoped to avoid by simply having his healer check up on him every once in awhile, and before the Competition was a logical time to do it. But aside from a "hello" at the very beginning, he hadn't said anything to her or reacted in any way to her probing, even when she spoke directly to him. Finally she raised an eyebrow and dug her fingernail into his upper arm – not painfully, but sharply enough to get his attention.

It worked; he jumped and blinked, only then realizing how out of it he'd been. "Oh, sorry Aerith…"

"Want to talk about it?" she asked, moving to sit next to him on the examining table, hands folded in her lap.

"It's nothing, it's just…" Cloud shook his head a little. "It's just that I realized I don't really have anything to do here anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean in less than three months I won't have anything else to learn from Bersi and Sanero and I won't have anything keeping me here. I've been… thinking about leaving," he admitted to her finally. "When I'm done with lessons. Maybe get a job teaching somewhere else… But all of a sudden now I _do_ have things keeping me here, because of Sora, you, even Leon."

Aerith wasn't surprised to hear that – she'd known for a long time that Cloud didn't belong in the place he'd been born anymore, that one day he'd get out. He just had to decide to take the step for himself. "Where would you go?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "Somewhere bigger than this, that's for sure. Maybe I'll check out those Isles that Sora's from, the way he talks about them makes them sound like some sort of paradise."

She smiled. "They might be his paradise, but somehow I can't see you lazing around on a beach all day."

He chuckled, arms resting on his legs as he shook his head. "Me either… Where would you go?" he asked suddenly.

"Me?" The question took her aback for a moment. "I don't know… Perhaps back home. I miss it there sometimes."

"I wonder if I'd like it there…"

"Most likely not." She smiled again at his silent question. "It's even smaller than this town."

"Definitely not, then…" He trailed off, looking down at his gloved hands, and she waited for him to continue with whatever he was going to ask. "Do you… think you'd like to come with me?"

If he was expecting her to be angry for suggesting that, he was going to be disappointed. Instead, Aerith's smile only widened, and she calmly answered, "Yes." When he looked up at her in surprise, she leaned over to kiss his cheek. "As long as I get a say in where it is."

"Definitely."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Four days after Leon's visit to the dojo, Bersi relayed to Cloud some rather startling news. Carran, Yuffie's teacher, had disappeared. The swordsman had gone by his apartment every day since their discussion but no one had answered the door, and finally he borrowed Sora's "talents" (though how Bersi knew about them they didn't know) to open the door. The small apartment hadn't had anyone in it for weeks if the layer of dust everywhere was anything to go by. But everything was still there, and they hadn't found the ninja slumped to the floor, so at last they determined there wasn't anything to do but wait for him to turn up. Even asking Yuffie, once Bersi visited her normal practice hour, couldn't tell him where Carran was.

That was also the day that the normal four o'clock group entered to find not one, but two men standing there waiting for them. Master Bersi had been joined by a man slightly older and much shorter than him and not quite as in shape, dressed in clothing, including a hat that Sora was soon to learn he was never without, that appeared to have been washed so many times that all shape had entirely gone out of it. But even with his disheveled appearance and his almost-white hair, his eyes and the movements of his body were spry and alert.

"Master Sanero, you're back!" Uo cried gladly.

"Yeah, to torment us more," Kyo tossed over his shoulder in jest. "Why couldn't you just stay out there on the edge of nowhere?"

Master Sanero aimed a playful cuff at Kyo's ear that the boy easily dodged. "You only get to make fun of me if you've finally managed to stop me kickin' your rear." His voice was lighter than Bersi's, but Sora could tell would be infinitely louder if he shouted.

"Come on, you need to meet him," Cloud said, moving in the direction of their teachers. Sanero immediately noticed Sora following him and raised both eyebrows at Cloud in a silent, but amused, question. "Got a new one for you."

"I'm Sora," he introduced himself, also not as intimidated by Sanero as he had been by Bersi. He held out a hand. "I moved here about a month ago."

What he did _not_ expect was for Sanero to crush his hand in what seemed to be a grip of iron. Sora's eyes bugged out as he tried to wrench his hand free and failed, and after about five seconds Sanero let him go so he could cradle his hand and try and rub some feeling back into the nerves.

"Lackin' the brute strength you got," he said casually to Cloud, as if nearly breaking someone's bones was something one did every day. "Workin' on his speed?"

"Yes, sir."

Sanero grinned, and Sora wanted to moan at the gleefully sadistic look in his eyes. "One fer me, then. It'll be fun to have a raw one again."

"For me or you?" Sora muttered, still rubbing his hand.

"Me, of course," Sanero replied with no pity whatsoever, grabbing his shoulder and giving him a push towards the rack of practice blades. "Warm up and let's get goin'!"

As Sora stumbled off towards the other side of the room, Cloud shook his head and turned once more back to Master Bersi. "And I have a message for you from Leon."

"What's that?"

"He says he'll compete."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

By now, Yuffie had figured out that it was impossible to escape from this guy – Leon, she reminded herself. Not that he ever really chased her down, not after the first time they'd met, but every time since then she'd been drawn into something resembling a conversation, even if they were short, and her normal tactics for keeping people away never worked on him. She had no idea why they didn't; he seemed to be wound so tight that it would be easy to set him off, but for some reason it never happened.

So when, barely a week before the Competition, she ran into him yet again in the Third District, she just groaned a little and held her ground.

"You act like you aren't happy to see me," he commented neutrally, stopping in front of her and crossing his arms.

She had to look up to see him; he really _was_ too damn tall. Only Cloud and Cid topped him. "What're you going to ask me this time? I still don't want to fight you, by the way."

"Actually, I wasn't planning on asking you anything," Leon replied, staying still.

"You mean I stopped for nothing?"

"If that's how you want to see it."

She rolled her eyes. "Great, now people'll think I want to talk to them."

He shrugged a little. "I can't see how you would like making everyone around detest you, but you seem to be doing a good job of it."

"Waaaaait a minute." Her eyes narrowed a little, and she poked him in the chest with one finger. "You don't exactly go out of your way to be Mister Sunshine, you know. That's pretty hypocritical, coming from you."

"I frankly don't care enough about most of the people in this narrow-minded place to try and make them think better of me, but I can tell you that I don't go out of my way to make people dislike me even more than they already do. How is saying that you do hypocritical, then?"

Yuffie opened her mouth to fire back a retort – and for once, found words utterly failing her. She did that, she _knew_ she did that, because it kept people off her back; she could _tell_ him that she didn't, but they both knew it would be a lie. "You… You…"

"I'm only telling the truth."

She could feel her face starting to redden, and she quickly said something to change the topic before he could bring it up. "So where _are_ you from, Mister Open-Minded-Know-It-All?"

Her color had to be incredibly obvious, but to his credit – only a little, but still credit – he didn't make any mention of it or seem to laugh at her in any way. "Hollow Bastion, actually."

That brought her up short, and what she said came as a surprise to him as well. "You are? Weird, so are we."

He blinked. "Really? Strange, I don't remember any Kisaragis… or Highwinds…"

"Probably from a different part, then."

"I suppose so."

And both of them ran out of words, but neither moved away, watching each other carefully. Leon didn't seem to mind, but Yuffie began to feel a little uncomfortable when the silence stretched on, and after almost a full minute she shrugged and began moving away. "Well, see ya."

"Think about this," he said suddenly, making her turn back to him.

"What?"

"You're not supposed to be this angry. You know it and I know it. Maybe you should ask yourself what you're _really_ angry about." And before she could stop gaping at his rather unexpected statement, he simply turned and walked away.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Yuffie," Kairi called through her stepsister's closed door. "Yuffie, dinner's ready." In the past year Kairi had taken over almost all the cooking from Cid as it was something she just liked to do – and Yuffie couldn't be trusted not to burn toast.

"Hey, Kairi."

Kairi blinked in surprise at the door. That was Yuffie's voice all right, but that tone… definitely wasn't. It sounded almost… contemplative? "Yeah?"

"Come in here, will you?"

Well, that was more Yuffie-ish, at least. She shook her head a little in disbelief, then pushed open the door and stepped in. Yuffie's room was in its usual mess, and she was sitting up on her bed, which was a relatively good sign – if she was being depressed about something, she would always lie down. "What is it?"

It took Yuffie a minute to pull the words together, which was something else so completely against her character that Kairi wasn't sure whether to be worried or not. "Am I… _Am_ I a bitch?" she asked, her tone honestly wondering.

That was entirely the _last_ question that Kairi expected from her. Yuffie, caring about her image? The world was going to end. "Why do you ask?" she questioned warily, not at all convinced that this wasn't some new elaborate ploy for them to fight yet again.

"Just wondering what you'd say." Kairi gave an unladylike snort, definitely not believing that was the only reason. "Look, I was, okay?" Yuffie replied to that, her tone only minorly irritated. "I know I'll act like one when I want to, but I didn't think I _was_ one."

"So what made you start thinking you were?" Kairi asked, putting off having to answer Yuffie's question.

For a moment, she was certain Yuffie wouldn't answer that either. But her stepsister surprised her once again. "Some guy today said I was 'too angry.' He said that I should think about what I was, quote, '_really_ angry about,' unquote."

Kairi sighed a little and stayed by the door – she wanted to be ready to run if Yuffie took this the wrong way. "Yes, Yuffie, you can be a bitch." Yuffie's reaction to that was milder than expected, at least, as she merely glared fiercely at her. She definitely hadn't wanted that answer. "See, there you go, looking like you want to kill me just for telling you the truth. And what in the hell was hurting Riku like that if not a bitchy action?"

"Hey, he provoked it."

"I'm sure you didn't help it, though," Kairi shot back. "And the way you treat everyone, even me, even _Cid_ sometimes for god's sakes, it's like you're bound and determined to make everyone hate you."

Yuffie hid a wince; that was far too much like what Leon had said to her earlier for her comfort. "People aren't worth it. Especially not the people here."

"Damnit, Yuffie, listen to yourself!" Kairi was getting fed up with it all. If Yuffie really _was_ starting to worry about all this, then she was going to listen to the hard truth whether she wanted to or not. Kairi was just glad she wasn't armed at the moment, though her shuriken had to be around somewhere. "I don't know where you got the idea that the people here aren't worth it, but you're dead wrong! You're friends with Aerith after all, so she has to be worth it. Whatever guy told you that actually got you to talk to someone, which you _never_ do if it's not Aerith. Okay, maybe you and Riku will never get along again, sometimes people just don't click, but come on, stop treating everyone like dirt! Find _Sora_, damnit, not even _you_ could be mad at him! You're going to turn into this bitter old hag if you don't stop pissing everyone off on purpose and try and _communicate_!"

Kairi couldn't _believe_ she'd just said all that, and apparently Yuffie couldn't either, as silence fell between them and stretched on for a long time. It was so quiet, in fact, that they could hear the sounds of Cid in the kitchen, dishing up his own dinner as he decided not to wait for them anymore. Yuffie wasn't looking at her, but she was frowning a little.

"You've been wanting to say that for a long time, haven't you?" she finally asked.

"No." Kairi shook her head. "I've been _saying_ it for a long time. You just haven't been listening."

Yuffie made no response to that, still watching ahead of her, and Kairi finally decided to just let her be for the moment. Whether she chose to face the truth or not, it had been said, and it was now up to her to do something about it if she wanted. "I'm going to go eat. Come join us if you're hungry." Her stepsister still didn't respond, so Kairi simply left the room, shutting the door behind her.

She'd almost reached the kitchen when she heard a knock on the front door, and she made a detour to answer it without really thinking about it. She was very surprised to see Sora on the other side, fist raised to knock again, and his own eyes were similarly wide when she opened it. "Kairi! What… What's happened?"

Apparently she couldn't hide the tension that the confrontation with Yuffie had wrought, and she just shook her head with a sigh. "It's… a long story. Come in, I'll tell you about it." She stepped aside to give him room to enter, completely forgetting for the moment all of Cid's rules.

"Something to do with Yuffie?" he asked as he shut the door.

She gave him a bit of a tired smile. "How'd you guess?"

"I learned to read your mind." The silly statement combined with his usual grin made her laugh at last, and if the laugh wasn't as hearty as some he'd heard in the past, it was still a laugh.

Kairi shook her head as the laughter finally stopped, still half-locked in her mental study thinking about her stepsister. "She… isn't really herself tonight. She was actually thinking about being _nice_ to people. She asked me if… if I thought she was a bitch. And I just said a lot of things that she finally heard and it's just making me wonder what the heck is going on, because everything seems to be changing."

"Like what?" Sora asked, more concerned for her than he dared show.

"Like… well, her, and Riku too, he's been acting strangely lately and won't tell me why, and Namine, and I _promise_ I won't try and push you into it again but she's more withdrawn than I've ever seen her. Maybe the way we had everything before wasn't perfect, but there were a lot of things that worked about it and aren't working now. It's all changing and I don't know what to do for them because neither of them will tell me what's going on and it's all so _confusing_ and they're my best friends and I can't help them."

She'd really, really needed to get that off her mind. Things _were_ changing now, had indeed been changing ever since Sora had moved to Traverse. Maybe Yuffie was right; maybe things here _were_ too isolated. Everyone knew each other and all their habits, and they got into ruts that they didn't get out of because they were familiar. Even Kairi and even Cid, to an extent, both of them technically foreigners, were in those ruts; being in this town seemed to freeze people in time. Sora, someone from a completely different way of life, could shake things up in a place like that just by being there. Maybe that was why Yuffie was the way she was – refusing to get stuck in the ruts and just going about it in a very bad way, trying to fight the confines but finding them unbreakable. That had to be enough to drive anyone crazy.

Suddenly she felt an arm around her shoulders and she was pulled in to lean against Sora as her friend responded to some signal she'd given to comfort her. He wasn't much taller than her – the perfect height, in fact, for her to rest her cheek on Sora's shoulder, which she did. She needed human contact right then, needed grounding, and Sora easily provided it. And he was very warm, as if he was still in his tropical home with warm nights and hot days. Not even Riku had done this for her, and she was very, very thankful to have Sora as a friend right then.

"I'm sorry everything's confusing, Kairi," he said, and she knew he wasn't apologizing, but rather sympathizing with her. "Sometimes things like that just happen and we can't change it. But if you ever want to talk, you know where to find me."

"Thank you," she responded, hugging him back.

He hadn't been able to stop himself from pulling her to himself, but he did manage to not kiss her, though he definitely, definitely wanted to. But that would only confuse her more, which wasn't at all what he wanted, so he settled for finally having an excuse to hold her and not let go until she asked. It was a step, definitely a step-

"**A-HEM.**"

Sora sprang backwards as if he'd been burned, eyes wide, turning to look at the door to what he assumed was the kitchen. Standing in the doorway was a very tall blond man, built a little more solidly than Cloud from years of heavy lifting, clothed in a pair of tan pants, a light denim jacket, and a pair of goggles pushed up over his forehead – and wearing the most alarming expression Sora could ever remember, Leon included, as he just _glared_ at him.

"Ah heh heh… Cid, this is Sora," Kairi said in a small voice from her new position far away from the boy. "He's the one helping me with math."

"**An' what's he doin' here right now?**"

Sora hurriedly plunged his hand into his pocket; seeing Kairi's expression earlier had driven from his mind the fact that he'd originally come on an entirely innocent mission. "Kairi forgot this in the library today," he said quickly, pulling out a rather plain slim blue wallet, "I just wanted to give it back to her. And, uh… Yeah, I gotta go now, see you later, bye!" Somehow he managed to give Kairi the wallet while running for the door at the same time. He practically dove through, just before Cid slammed it shut, barely missing his heels. He sprawled on the pavement outside their home as a shouting match erupted inside between Kairi and her guardian, Kairi yelling for chasing him off and Cid yelling for inviting him in in the first place.

It really was a wonder they didn't get evicted.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

In the end, Cid grounded her for two days, something she thought was horribly unfair but couldn't get him to budge on. Kairi made a quick phone call to Mela while Cid had gone to retrieve something from the shop to spread the news around, then retreated to her room so she wouldn't have to look at him. He was _so_ overprotective, and it was getting ridiculous. Fishing through the stuff piled on her desk for the book she was currently reading, Kairi curled up among her pillows and opened it to the marked page, eyes falling to the words and determined to ignore Cid for the next two days.

The ignoring worked fine for the most part, but over those days her thoughts were more muddled than she was used to. Everything she'd said to Sora had been true: Riku and Namine's behavior (though at least she knew the reason for Namine, unlike Riku), Yuffie acting oddly, even Kyo, Mela, Ileen, and the rest, everything was changing and for two days she couldn't see any of them to try and figure out what was going on. Cid wouldn't even let her go to her math lessons, even though he was the one who'd wanted her to start them in the first place, but instead took her to the shop with him. That wasn't so bad, as she at least got to see other people as she helped behind the counter, but when there weren't any customers her thoughts would drift. Had Sora heard she was grounded, and if he had, would he blame himself for getting her in trouble? He probably would, knowing him. It was just the type of thing he would do. But he'd been so nice to her that night, just when she needed it, and she didn't regret it at all.

It was on the second day, as she was leaning on the counter and staring at the old-fashioned fireplace before her, that the revelation suddenly hit her.

Could it be…?

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sora had indeed heard about the grounding – from Yuffie, surprisingly, who once again came by the library the next morning to inform him of Kairi's absence. Something was different about her – he couldn't quite tell what, but she was just a little quieter, moved just a little slower, not looking like she'd been shot out of a slingshot for the moment but still very energetic. Sora was severely tempted to ask her about it, but he got the not at all uncertain feeling that if he did, she would explode, and so he left her alone. And he did indeed blame himself, but there wasn't anything he could do about it – and he _knew_ that Kairi would just tell him to not be silly because she was the one who broke the rules. So he put it from his mind as best he could and turned to other things to keep himself occupied.

There wasn't a lack of things to do. With the Competition less than a week away, training had kicked into overtime, and Cloud and Sora found themselves both roped in to helping Sora's mother paint the _entire_ apartment as the paint she'd ordered had finally arrived. She paid both of them for their time, though, ensuring they'd have money for the after-Competition festivities. And then once Kairi's grounding was over there were the math lessons again, then still trying to dig around for information about Carran, then Sanero "claiming" him as a personal project and working him into the ground to train up his speed, then helping Cloud assemble some shelves from one of those incomprehensible do-it-yourself kits…

So what with one thing and another, Sora didn't realize it was finally the day of the Competition until Cloud came knocking at his door, buster sword already in its holster on his back.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Yaaaaaaaaaaay Clorith! I thought it fairly appropriate that the first "romance" I officially began in this story was the one that's technically the smallest - though seeing as how I've juggled the characters and everything, maybe it's not fair to say that Cloud's a less important character than Sora. Ah well, in any case, I finally started something for real, and managed to get Aerith in at last.

And Iris, no, the climax isn't soon .:grins:. High point soon. Certainly a high point soon. But we have a _lot_ more to go before the ninja is "tamed" - though Yuffie'll never _really_ be tamed. But stick around and see for yourself!

Remember, **review replies are up on my livejournal!** Tell me what you think!


	7. Finding an Opening

DISCLAIMER: The law now allows me to buy alcohol, and I hate it but I may just have to go do it, because I'm so sad about not owning Kingdom Hearts. .:sniff:.

AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Yep, I had my twenty-first birthday! Wasn't really all that exciting, but it's kinda fun to know that there's pretty much nothing I can't do now because of my age. And _Rent_ rocks my world. Seriously, long time _Rent_-musical fan here, and they got the movie _just_ right. Go see it, it's amazing (and I worship at the feet of Jesse L. Martin).

This chapter officially replaces _Last Resort_ Two as the longest thing I've ever written for fanfiction at almost 11,500 words, and also the longest thing I've ever written just for creative purposes. Give me a little and something tells me that the "longest thing ever" record might be broken soon (it's currently held by a research paper I wrote in high school). And _Taming_ also tops the 50,000 word mark with this chapter. I win at NaNoWriMo! (Sorta. I didn't officially enter, but I wrote the current seven chapters all within a one-month period, from mid-October to mid-November, so I sorta met the goals and it feels pretty good.)

And just remember, I'm an action girl at heart - not gore necessarily, but action. One-on-one fights. .:grins:. That should give you a pretty good hint as to why this chapter is my favorite so far. Don't forget, review replies and fun facts are up in my livejournal at www . livejournal . com / users / tairako (copy, paste, delete spaces). I know ff.n finally initiated a review reply system of their own, but you can't reply to the anonymous reviews like that, so I'm keeping the whole mess over on my LJ.

(Soundtrack: "Cotton-Eyed Joe" no, I'm not joking by Trick Pony up until the point where Sora runs out, and "Classical Gas" by Vanessa-Mae from her album _The Violin Player_ for everything after.)

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Why do you have that?" Sora asked, confused, as he hung on to the front door of his apartment.

Cloud just stared at him as if he were brain-dead. "You… me… Leon… five others… big fight… remember?"

"OH!" Sora yelped, actually jumping as the connection was finally made. "Damn, mine's at the dojo!"

"It'll be okay, we'll just go by there on our way over. But come on, we've gotta get going _now_."

Sora got ready in record time, changing out of the clothes he slept in into his usual black gear for fighting, and raced out of the door with Cloud right behind him as he was still pulling on his gloves. They couldn't start the Competition until everyone was there, but they were dangerously on the border of being late. Both of them flat-out ran, dodging the streams of people that were making their way to the Second District and startling no few of them, and tore through the doors and into the dojo.

Master Bersi raised an eyebrow at them from his semi-usual position on the floor. "Cuttin' it close, aren't you?"

"I just need my sword!" Sora said quickly, once more tearing across the room – and jumping when Bersi suddenly put one of his arms in his path as a blockade, his momentum actually carrying him forward several feet in his jump.

"Calm down, you're not that late." The master stood, shaking his head. "Kids your age, always rushin' to get everywhere. You're gonna be useless in the fight if you don't calm down and get your breath back. Now." Bersi walked over to the rack and pulled out Sora's sword, handing it to him hilt-first, as was proper. "Get over there, but _walk_. Sanero's already there, and I'll be comin' right behind you."

Sora bobbed a sketchy bow to the teacher as he accepted his sword. "Thank you… and sorry." Adding on a grin with his apology, they both left the dojo and headed down the small, packed alley in the direction of the rising murmur of noise.

The sight that greeted Sora's eyes as he and Cloud rounded the corner of the alley into the long plaza of the Second District wasn't exactly what he had expected. With all the talk of a festival, and everything that had happened with Namine and Kairi and the "dates," he'd thought he'd see something like a tent city encroaching on the area. Instead, except for people crowded around the edges, the plaza was still mostly unobstructed. Someone, probably one of the masters, had marked off four large squares with white chalk marching in a row down the plaza, and the people of Traverse took extra pains to avoid stepping inside, despite the fact that the squares took up a great deal of the room. Many more people were lined along the balconies and terraces that enclosed the district, including his parents; they were standing with Cloud's mother just over the fountain near the door to the First District, an area where they could see just about everything but what was happening at the far end near the Gizmo Shop. Sora waved enthusiastically to them to make sure they saw the two of them, and their parents waved back; when Cloud realized who Sora was watching, he also held up a hand in a sort of salute. Some tents and temporary stalls made of tables had already been set up on the upper level, but still nowhere near the amount he expected.

"So where's this 'festival' supposed to happen?" he asked Cloud, almost under his breath.

"As people get eliminated, we don't need so many squares anymore," the blond explained, gesturing to the two on the ends to illustrate his point. "After the first eliminations, the next round uses the two in the center, and then the last fight only uses one of them. So the spaces get swarmed after we're done with them. And a lot of stuff is in the First District as well."

"Ah-huh." Sora didn't have time to say anything else, as Master Sanero's voice suddenly rang over the crowds, yelling at them to move and let the fighters through. With good-natured catcalls and loud cheers for their favorites, the crowd parted in several places to give the competitors clear paths to the fighting area. Cloud and Sora managed to shove their way through the bodies just before Leon emerged from the direction of the First District; Riku came from the Gizmo Shop and Yuffie simply performed her trademark move of avoiding the crowd by jumping over everyone from a high building, surprising everyone as no one knew she'd been there. Uo wriggled in at the last moment, her small body very well suited for slipping through the press.

The ninja had something very large strapped to her back, something that looked like an oversized shuriken and big enough to slice him in half. Sora definitely found himself wishing that his name and Yuffie's weren't drawn together, as he would much rather stay in one piece. "Uh, Cloud… What's that?"

Glancing over, the blond groaned a little. "Her conformer… It's big, it's sharp, and it spins fast."

"Good to know. What would you recommend?"

"Hope whoever gets her knows how to duck. And everyone watching does, too."

"_OVER HERE!_" Sanero bellowed, pulling his shapeless cap off his head and reaching into a pocket. It was impossible for Sora not to notice the way that people drew slightly away from Leon as he passed, and it wasn't simply because of the gunblade slung negligently over one shoulder; Cloud had his buster sword, a much larger weapon, resting on his shoulder guard as normal, and people weren't giving him the kind of space they were giving Leon. It seemed Leon was right; the people of Traverse were scared of him, for better or worse. Sora knew that Leon didn't really like it here, though he never said why he stayed, but it was obvious that the peoples' fear wasn't helping him at all.

Cloud and Sora were the last of the eight to gather around Sanero, who by that time was shaking his cap, something rattling inside. When Leon had decided that he would, indeed, compete, it had brought the total number to eight, and Bersi and Sanero had heaved a sigh of thanks that this year things had worked out evenly. Most years there wasn't a good number for a series of progressive fights, meaning they had to find ways of juggling everyone to still produce fair results. It was a problem they had to deal with all too often and were glad not to have to this time.

The last two fighters were also members of the sword class, a pair of fraternal twins who seemed to have several general traits in common yet look nothing like each other. Addem and Wil were both tall and rather thin, with brown hair and eyes, but their faces had entirely different builds, their hair and eyes were completely different shades, and Addem was more outgoing while Wil was the most laid-back person around. But the brothers were inseparable; Sora still hadn't figured out who they hung out with, if they hung out with anyone but each other, but they were both friendly enough. They were eighteen, Cloud's age and a year older than Riku, but neither of them possessed the innate skill that Riku, Cloud, and Leon seemed to have in spades. Sora began wishing with all his might that he be paired off against one of them, or Uo, for his fight; he knew he wouldn't last past the first round, but at least with one of those three he would last _longer_. And probably hurt less, too.

"All right," Sanero said at last, opening his hat and holding it out to the crowd of young people in front of him. "Everyone take one, and no lookin'. The two with ones go to that end-" he motioned to the fountain, the area where Sora and Cloud's parents were "and so on down to four." This time it was the Gizmo Shop his looked at. Glancing quickly at Cloud, Sora took a deep breath and stuck his hand into the hat before anyone else could, wanting to find out fast who he'd be against.

He pulled out a simple round blob, probably made of clay, that someone had painted the number two on. He didn't have to move anywhere, so he simply stood back as the others received their numbers and began drifting off. He noticed quickly that Riku, Leon, and Cloud were all moving away, and he heaved a sigh of relief; he didn't need to be slaughtered _that_ badly. Leon moved into the first square, followed by Addem, who was watching the unexpected addition with a look that was curious instead of frightened, thank goodness. Wil followed Cloud down to the fourth square, the farthest away from Sora and their parents, both moving at a sedate pace but Wil almost ambling. Uo quickly moved to the third square, followed by Riku, who was limbering up with a few practice swings with his strange black blade.

Sora blinked. Leon and Addem, Riku and Uo, Cloud and Wil… That left…

Oh no…

He turned with a sinking sensation in his stomach to face his own opponent: none other than Yuffie. The ninja was starting to grin at his discomfort, not the feral grin that he would expect, but still a grin that promised amusement at his dawning fear. "Beginning to wish you didn't sign up?" she asked, pulling a strap that hung by her hip that seemed to release her giant conformer from its confines.

He swallowed, holding up his sword. "Just don't kill me, okay?"

"Oh good, someone who knows his limits." Yuffie was flat-out _beaming_ at this now, clearly loving every second of it, holding up the giant razor-edged pinwheel with shocking ease.

Up and down the plaza, the other pairs were also readying their weapons and settling into battle stances, with Sanero standing between the second and third squares watching all of them. Finally deeming them ready, he started to bellow at the top of his lungs, making sure that all participants and spectators could hear him. "You all know the rules! Thirty minute time limit! Forfeit or knock out! No hitting below the belt!" At least they were fairly evenly matched on that, Sora only being a little bit taller than Yuffie. Sanero quickly got out of the way before yelling his last directions. "NOW! BEGIN!"

The air was suddenly filled with roared cheering that drowned out even the clash of weapons as all four fights kicked into gear at once. Sora didn't have a chance to focus on any of the others as Yuffie's conformer went ripping for his head, and he threw himself immediately to the side. He could tell that he was going to be counting on his speed and relatively small size in this fight more than he ever did with Cloud, as Yuffie was even quicker than Uo, the acknowledged fastest person in their class. He dove into a roll and came up inside the reach of her weapon, swinging the sword up towards her ribcage, and she quickly launched herself backwards and out of his range, smaller shuriken appearing in her hand and being quickly flung at him. He dove and rolled again, barely avoiding them, continuing to chase her, and then jumped into the air to bring his blade down in a chop that she caught on the crossbrace of her conformer.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Kairi had taken shameless advantage of Aerith's good nature and her friendship with her stepsister to weasel a place next to her right in the middle, on the side with the Hotel, and away from Cid's usual position from the bell tower's terrace. One of the swordsmen had asked the pink-clad girl almost a month before if she wouldn't mind standing on call as healer; they always kept plenty of the restorative drinks around during the Competition, but having an actual person there made it much easier, and old Machie's strength was starting to fade. Aerith had agreed immediately, and so she was afforded the best view of anyone, as close as they could get her while still keeping her safe. Kairi had thought that she would be watching her cousin's bout the closest, or her best friend's, but when Kairi could tear her eyes away from her own focus for a moment, she found the healer girl looking down the length of the plaza, to the very end where a blond-capped black shape wasn't even breaking a sweat in his own fight.

"Aerith? Why're you watching Cloud?"

Aerith glanced at her and smiled, then simply turned back to continue watching. Making a mental note to investigate that more later, Kairi turned back to the second square, where her stepsister was attempting to make mincemeat of her friend.

She wasn't watching Riku's fight, as it wasn't Riku she was worried about; he could hold his own against Uo, even though she would give him a workout. No, Kairi was worried about Sora. Growing up with Yuffie (and, to some extent, Cid), and being good friends with Riku and Kyo, she couldn't help but know something about fighting even though she didn't practice it herself. Sora was good, that was certain, but he was untrained, and it showed. He continued to charge Yuffie when several times it would have been better to make her come to him, and while he proved very good at getting inside her defenses, she kept escaping. They were wearing each other down, but Yuffie definitely had the upper hand. Even as Kairi watched, one of her shuriken sliced Sora's cheek open, leaving a thin trail of bright red blood in its wake. Kairi personally thought that using live weapons in this thing was just asking for a disaster, but no one could be persuaded not to.

Sora's strength was waning, though she could tell he was refusing to fall over, just as Riku had told her was his habit. Yuffie could read it too, even better than her, and pushed herself just that little bit harder, trying to take him out even faster. Enthusiastic cheering suddenly resounded from Addem's end of the plaza, and Kairi spared enough of a glance in that direction to note that Addem had, indeed, been beaten by Leon already, then looked immediately back. She was just in time to see a slightly grim smile on Sora's face, and she knew it was because he was glad that he wasn't the first eliminated. A few minutes later came another roar, from the opposite direction, and without even looking she knew Cloud had won his match as well. And still Yuffie and Sora continued to hack at each other.

It wasn't too long after that that Sora stumbled, foot catching itself on the ground, and Yuffie took shameless advantage of it. Throwing her conformer in a wide arc to free her hands, she quickly spun around with a vicious kick that connected with the side of Sora's head and sent him sprawling, making him drop his blade and clocking his head against the ground as well. Sanero quickly rushed to the edge of the square as the crowd's attention all turned to Yuffie and Sora; if he stood up quickly enough, it wouldn't count as a knockout with the win going to Yuffie. She caught the conformer and instinctively sank into a crouch again, watching the boy closely. He groaned, pushed himself up with his hands – and fell on his face again, not rising this time.

Yuffie started jumping around like a maniac as the crowd cheered again, and Aerith quickly slipped from her place to run to Sora's side, Kairi following her closely. By the time the younger girl arrived, Yuffie had stopped her victory dance and Aerith already had him propped up in her lap, hand resting on his left temple as he groaned and tried to protest the touch. Strapping the conformer to her back once more, Yuffie wandered over to Sora's other side, across from Kairi, and looked down at the boy she'd knocked silly. "Tough little bugger," she commented – but without her usual asperity. In fact, it almost sounded… complimentary?

Kairi quickly shook the thought from her head and concentrated on Sora. A green light shone around the hand Aerith rested on his temple, disappearing apparently through his skin and hair. The cut slowly vanished from his cheek, though the blood it had lost remained behind. His color, which had been starting to pale, quickly improved to his normal tone, and as he opened his eyes she could see them starting to focus properly once more. When he saw the faces of the three girls above him, he gave them a weak grin. "Least I didn't go down first."

"Shhh," Aerith whispered, pressing that hand more firmly to his temple. "Let me finish, then you can talk." Sora nodded, just enough so she would know he agreed, and fell silent; the more green light that was pushed into his body, the better he looked. It was only a few seconds later that he opened his eyes entirely and they focused easily; and when he grinned it was his easy, normal grin, and Kairi grinned back as she realized how worried she'd been over him. Pushing himself off Aerith, Sora gave Kairi a thumbs up before looking at Yuffie, still grinning a little. "I thought I told you not to kill me."

"Well I didn't, did I?" Yuffie countered, one arm draped negligently over a spike of her conformer.

"But you _did_ give him a mild concussion," Aerith told them, standing gracefully and brushing a little dirt from her knees. "I thought the goal was not to hurt each other."

Yuffie shrugged. "He wouldn't've stopped otherwise. And you were here."

"I know, I know. And it looks like I might be needed for the next one, as well."

Riku and Uo were still going at it; Uo was just too good at dodging him, though she wasn't getting many chances to attack. The silver-haired boy kept chasing her around the square, clearly frustrated, as was she; he could parry with the best of them. Finally, several minutes after Aerith had fixed up Sora and with the crowd pressing up close, Riku made a desperate lunge that knocked her feet out from under her. When she pushed herself to her feet again, he was ready; putting all his power into one swing, everyone could hear a _crack_ as the dull edge of his sword connected with her right arm. Uo cried out in sudden pain and dropped her rapier, clutching her arm and sinking to her knees. Aerith quickly maneuvered her way through the crowd (somehow she didn't seem to push) to the girl's side, kneeling once more. Placing one hand above the break, the green light again appeared and began to flow into the girl, giving her body the strength to put several weeks of healing into just a few moments. 

Sora and Kairi could barely see it from their position; the crowd had closed in around Riku and Uo while Sora was still being tended. They knew that Riku had won, but it would be nearly impossible to make their way over to him for the next few minutes. So Kairi turned to smile at Sora, once again making his mind stop working even though she didn't realize it. "You did well."

"I, uh…" he stammered, hand going to the back of his head. "Ah… thanks, Kairi."

She giggled. "We really have to work on your ability to accept compliments. You lasted that long against Yuffie; you did _very_ well."

He could just feel the red pouring into his face even as he tried to beat it back. "She still just about killed me, I didn't do that well."

Grinning, Kairi nudged an elbow into his side. "Tomato. Embarrassed because I'm telling the truth?"

"No! I just… uh…" That red was only getting worse, and he could swear there was a physical jolt when he accidentally brushed her hand with his arm.

"Sora?" she prodded when he didn't continue.

"I, uh…" What was the _matter_ with him! "Sorry!" he exclaimed, and began dodging between people in the direction of the dojo, his speed putting him out of her range quickly.

"Wait! Sora! SORA!"

But he was long gone.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Bersi, Addem, and Wil, neither of whom had needed Aerith's magical touch, finally succeeded in pushing the crowd back again so the two semifinal fights could take place. The crowd was noisier than Cloud could remember at these things, perhaps because the competitors were much more… energetic this year. Normally the first fights were all over very quickly, as the stronger members of the class weeded out the weaker, but the addition of the new elements of Leon and Sora, and Riku being paired off against a person who could drag him into a long fight, had added a new level of excitement to that first round that carried over. Wil and Addem were both smarter than Sora in one way; when it had become apparent that one more blow would finish them as it had finished Sora, they had forfeited and stayed in one piece. Now they helped the masters perform crowd control as Uo stood off to the side, rubbing her still slightly tender arm, with Aerith next to her.

Once they finally had the middle two squares clear, Sanero stepped forward once more, giving the crowd a patented "teacher" glare that shut them up quickly. Finally, he nodded in satisfaction. "ALL RIGHT!" he bellowed again, and pointed at Yuffie and Leon, then to one of the squares. "You two there!" Then to Cloud, Riku, and the other square. "And you two there!"

The rules called for a ten minute break between rounds to give the healer time to tend to anyone who needed it and to allow the fighters a breather. All four had been given a restorative as well, to put them in full health and make the field as level as possible, so when the two pairs stepped into their areas, it was almost as if the first round hadn't taken place.

Yuffie couldn't help but shake her head at the irony as she cracked her knuckles and freed her conformer from its straps. "Well, you're gonna get that fight you seem so eager for. Happy about that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Leon countered, giving a couple of practice swings with the gunblade to loosen up his wrists and shoulders.

"Thought so," she muttered, studying him carefully. The problem with this one was that she had no idea what he was like. She'd been too busy dealing with Sora to see how he fought, while _he'd_ had at least a little time after Addem forfeited to watch her own fight. She'd also never seen his weapon before; it looked like a sword, and he seemed to be handling it like a sword, but what about that gun-like handle? Could that thing fire _bullets_? Hell, would he even be _allowed_ to fire bullets? She rather thought he wouldn't, but she couldn't be sure. Yet another thing to watch out for.

Riku and Cloud watched each other evenly, studying, Cloud's sword over his shoulder as usual and Riku holding his easily off the ground. They hadn't fought against each other in almost a month – not, in fact, since Cloud had begun practicing with Leon, though Riku didn't know that. But their almost silent rivalry was kicking up completely, checking each other for any chinks, any gaps that they could use to their advantage, any way to take each other down. A month ago neither could beat the other unless some stupid thing happened, like one of them tripping. Had anything changed in a month?

All four of them settled into their guard stances, watching their opponents. Yuffie had to give Leon some credit; he wasn't berating her, wasn't yelling at her, and in fact seemed to be treating her as a serious opponent – in other words, he was behaving exactly as fighters were supposed to behave, a courtesy she rarely received from anyone except her master. Maybe she should've agreed to a practice bout before this, if that was his normal mode of operation, but it was a little too late now.

"NOW! BEGIN!"

Unlike the previous round, not one of them immediately jumped into the attack, and the crowds stayed subdued as they waited for the first move. Both pairs circled each other, measuring – and finally the first one to move was Riku, lunging forward with a vicious swipe at Cloud's waist. Yuffie was quickly behind him, jumping backwards instead for a clear throw with her conformer, as Cloud spun on his heel and parried Riku's attack. Leon easily blocked the conformer with a loud CLANG from the weapons, but by that point Yuffie had a few of her shuriken out and was firing them at him in quick succession.

Most of the focus was on Riku and Cloud, as Riku was clearly the favorite of the four. He was well-known, well-liked, respected, and talented; Cloud barely talked to anyone, Leon was new and frightening, and Yuffie was crazy and isolated. But it took several eyes off Leon and Yuffie's bout, which Yuffie could only like as Leon shocked her by managing to block her shuriken with the flat of his blade. All of them. No one, not even Cloud the one time she'd fought with him the year before, had been able to do that. She quickly threw herself into a mid-air twist to evade her own weapons as they ricocheted back at her, throwing her conformer again only seconds before landing in a somersault. Leon was once again held back by having to evade her weapon, but he quickly followed up his advantage and moved after her. His footwork was much slower than hers, and she could probably evade him forever – but he was certainly stronger, and as she caught the conformer once again, she knew he was also the better fighter. With the restricted space she couldn't keep running away from him; eventually he'd catch her, and his blows would hurt more than hers. Her best hope was to find a hole in his defenses as quickly as she could, and exploit it.

Several yards away, Riku and Cloud were nothing but a blur to those watching. Neither of them could match Sora, Yuffie, or Uo for basic speed, but both of them could – and did – throw around their swords like children's toys, tossing them from one hand to the other and back again within a second, swinging hard and fast from just the wrists to cut down on the time needed for one action. The crowd who could see them, usually extremely vocal, was stunned into near-silence as everyone simply stared at the battle. Even as they were watching, within three seconds Riku attacked, then Cloud, then Riku twice, then Cloud once more, their swings and jumps moving them around the open space almost in a dance. Once a shower of sparks even erupted from their blades as Riku caught Cloud's sword on his and scraped it free, the sharp edges grinding against each other with a terrible screech.

Yuffie and Leon had blocked the other fight, and indeed all their surroundings, out of their perceptions completely, Yuffie using her conformer as a giant shield half the time to catch his attacks on and half the time attacking, searching as fast as she could for that opening she knew he had to have somewhere in his defense. Another attack – _not there_ – and another – _not there either!_ – and another – _not- wait, THERE!_

She quickly let the conformer fly, getting it out of her way, and threw her arms up in a crossed guard above her head as he swung the gunblade down in a fierce chop, taking advantage of her own moment of open defense. What Leon was _not_ expecting, however, was for the gunblade to crash down on her arms – and to rebound back with a _very_ audible CLANG, jarring both his arms up to the shoulders and drawing the stares of the wide-eyed crowds. He reacted quickly on instinct and threw himself back, arms still shaking a little but not dropping his weapon, and Yuffie's combination kick-punch missed him by inches. He continued moving back, shaking the feeling back into his arms, and noticed that his gunblade had slashed open her long, thick gloves – and that glints of metal showed between the slashes. _Armguards_, he registered, swinging the gunblade around once more to block another kick and an immediate punch, and then Yuffie sprang up to catch her conformer, hanging in the air as _she_ took a turn at cleaving him head to toe.

Cloud could feel it as he fought Riku. A month's steady practice with Leon, someone who hadn't been trained in the same ways he had, who had a different fighting form, probably more extensive training against others with various weapons – all of that had altered him slightly, altered how he fought, how he reacted, nudging his concentration up a notch here, his speed up a tad there. It wasn't much of a change at all, though with time it probably would be – but for right now, it was enough.

Riku could feel it as well, feel how his opponent was different, and spent only a split second wondering how in the hell that happened, then threw himself into the fight with his entire body and mind. His focus and concentration was legendary when he applied it, he could always push himself a little faster than he thought he'd be able to, and that's exactly what he did now, determined not to lose to Cloud for the second year in a row. Their blades and feet sped up and they were actually rising off the ground now to meet each other in the air, landing only long enough to push up again, trying to drive each other to ground and thus to defeat with the crowd gasping in amazement.

Leon parried Yuffie's chop, but just barely, and dove to the side before she could land and try yet another kick on him, but he knew what to do now. He began to press the attack again, and she returned to defending with her conformer; apparently blocking with her arms was just as jarring for her as for him, with the force he put in his attacks. Every attack sped up just a little more, and she matched his speed, whirling to defend and occasionally attack again, once managing to throw three more shuriken.

That was what finished her. Fast as wildfire, he sliced his gunblade up – and _through_ one of the shuriken, making the spectators yelp in astonishment. Paying no attention to that, he angled the blade to once again ricochet the shuriken back at her, and as she twisted to avoid them once again he swung without thinking, catching her in the side of the head with the flat of his blade much as Riku had done to Uo. Yuffie cried out and crashed to the ground, conformer clanging down beside her and bouncing a little, slicing one of her arms above her gloves. She most definitely would not be getting up again, and Leon took just one moment to catch his breath before shoving the gunblade at someone standing nearby and moving to kneel at her side, checking to see how extensive the damage was.

Riku and Cloud heard and saw none of it, trapped in their deadly world of spinning swords, but the pace and speed was beginning to tell on Riku. There was no question about it, Cloud was different, different in a hundred tiny ways that alone or even in small groups would have made no difference to their fighting ritual, but when added together spelled his demise. He tried to keep going, keep up the speed, the attacking, the blocking, but his breath was starting to come rough in his lungs, and his feet were beginning to falter-

And Cloud swept his blade from his hand. It went spinning over the heads of the watchers, who cried out and ducked, to crash into the wall of the plaza several feet and several bodies away. Riku quickly spun to face Cloud again, panting heavily and not wanting to believe what had just happened – but there was the buster sword, point at his throat, only a mere two inches preventing him from taking a much closer shave than he wished.

"Do you yield?" Cloud asked, breathing almost as hard as him, but the giant sword never lowered one millimeter.

"…Yes," Riku heaved, backing away and bending in half to brace his hands on his knees, taking great gasping breaths to revive himself and trying to prevent the bitterness of defeat from worming its way into his mind.

Aerith struggled through the crowd to reach Leon and Yuffie, the former of which had turned the latter over very carefully, revealing a small cut in her scalp above her ear, and the girl moaned in pain as he very, very gently pushed some of her short black hair aside to assess the damage. The pink-clad healer fell to her knees next to her friend, nodding to Leon to hold her steady, as she placed both hands on the unhurt portions of Yuffie's head and closed her eyes to concentrate.

"Concussion," she heard him say quietly. "I didn't mean to hit her that hard…"

"Shhhhh," she briefly insisted, and he fell silent, letting her work. Under Aerith's hands and her miraculous green light, the cut disappeared almost instantly, and Leon absently wiped the trickle of blood away, more concerned than he'd let on. He'd underestimated her; underestimated her speed and power, the amount of training she'd had, her number and type of weapons and how far she was willing to go to win. So he'd overcompensated – and he'd broken her skull open. That wasn't at all what he'd intended; he'd forgotten how small a girl she really was, someone who barely came up to his shoulder even when standing straight, and how easily she could break simply because she _had_ been so tough. It was lucky Aerith was there; his blow wouldn't have killed her, but it would have caused her a lot of pain he didn't want her to have.

Suddenly Yuffie's hand came up and she pushed her friend's hands away; Aerith opened her eyes and blinked out of her concentration haze as Yuffie, against all good sense, pushed herself to her feet using Leon's shoulder as a brace. She still looked pale, even for her, and while the cut was gone her eyes still wouldn't focus all the way, but she managed to look shakily down on them anyway.

"Don't want that," she mumbled to Aerith, stepping – almost falling, really – back a foot.

"But Yuffie-"

"I'm fine!" And going against all she should be able to do in that state, the ninja turned and ducked between two entirely shocked onlookers who couldn't stop her in time, her small size making her easily disappear among the crowd.

"_Yuffie!_" Aerith yelled after her, standing and preparing to chase her down, until a heavy hand landed on her shoulder.

"I'll go after her," Cid said around his toothpick. "You gotta stay here, these two'll probably need you in a minute," he commented, motioning to Leon with his head in order to indicate which two he meant.

Thanks to Cloud and Sora, Leon knew exactly who Cid was and what he looked like, and if there was one thing he didn't need then, it was her father figure glaring at him angrily as he was sure Cid was about to do. "Sir, I'm sorry for-"

But Cid cut him off with a shake of his head and a wave of his hand. "You didn' mean to, I don' think, an' she knew getting' into it she could get hurt. Go ahead an' fight, I'll bring her back t'get _un_hurt."

Leon nodded silently, watching Cid as the tall man easily forded the crowd in the direction his "daughter" had gone. When he turned back, Aerith was looking at him speculatively. "Yes?"

"Nothing," she replied, and turned away – but Leon had to wonder if it really was "nothing."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sora sat on the lone bench in the dojo, head tilted back against the wall, eyes closed, wondering for the thousandth time how stupid he could be. Even accidentally _touching_ her made him clam up and turn into a beat, made him lose track of his words and sound like an absolute moron. He was hopeless – and there was no way Kairi could ever go for anyone as hopeless as he was.

He didn't know how long it had been since he'd come in there; he hadn't heard any roars from the crowd, so he couldn't even tell if the next set of fights had begun or not. He knew where Kairi would be right then, though: intently watching Riku fight Cloud and cheering him on, keeping half an eye on Yuffie against Leon… He idly speculated on just who would win those matches before another wave of _stupid, stupid Sora!_ crashed down on him and he continued berating himself.

The creak of the doors opening startled him into sitting up straight, peering at the figure framed in the doorway. With the sun behind the person, he couldn't immediately tell who it was, but as the figure entered the room, it resolved into Riku – a slightly beat up, though mostly whole Riku, who watched the ground as he walked instead of looking confidently before him as he always did. Sora quickly stood, wondering what had happened. "Hey Riku, you okay? Is it over, or-"

"Yeah, it's over," he replied, looking up at last, and Sora took an unconscious step back at the bitterness in his eyes. "Two years… _two years_ now I couldn't beat him, and it was supposed to be me this time."

"…Cloud won?" Sora asked to make sure, not without sympathy. He'd been fighting Cloud as well, and while he knew he'd improved, Cloud had been improving as well with facing Leon, and so he couldn't find much difference in their bouts. 

"Yeah," Riku said bitterly, stopping in the middle of the room and shaking his head. "Once again, Cloud walks away with everything… The title, even my cousin. What the hell she sees in him…" he continued, almost in disgust, with Sora growing more uneasy nearby. "He thinks he can just take everything like he deserves it for being crippled, and he doesn't, and _you_ just encourage him." Sora's eyes widened dramatically as Riku's almost babbled line of accusation swung on him as well. "He hasn't _earned_ anything, hasn't worked for it like I have, hasn't even _tried_ to be human since then, and then you come along and just make him certain that he _is _entitled to all this."

In one part of himself, Riku knew that he was making no sense and telling no truth. But his major fault was overconfidence and pride, and at the moment his pride was being ripped to pieces by that picture that hung in his brain of Cloud's sword poised to kill if he so chose. He hadn't even been taken out by a lucky swing; it had been a freak accident, on _his_ part, that had forced him into _surrender_ instead of fighting to the end as his pride demanded. So the part that knew that what he was saying was wrong was buried under his shattered confidence and the sudden self-doubt that had come flooding in when he'd been defeated, and he couldn't hear it at all.

"Just like _you_." And now he rounded fully on Sora, glaring at the younger boy, and Sora was suddenly very, very glad that he had a sword while Riku didn't. His hand grasped the hilt next to him as Riku continued on, sounding almost delusional but staying right where he was and speaking in a rational voice. "You come here and Namine's singing your praises and Master Bersi holds you higher than me and Kairi keeps talking about you and _you_ get to tutor her, and Yuffie doesn't try to kill you. What makes you so special?" Sora didn't answer, not at all sure how to handle Riku now. "What makes you so great? Do you _really_ think Kairi's gonna pick you over me?"

Sora could barely keep his jaw from dropping; when had Riku figured _that_ out? He'd been careful never to mention her name, and he only mentioned he liked someone when the information was forced out of him (except with Cloud and Leon). "Riku, I-"

"You don't deserve her, Sora!" he half-yelled, still not moving but becoming more passionate by the moment. "You haven't been here for her in the past, you don't know her like I do, you haven't liked her for as long! What the _fuck_ makes you think you'd be better for her than me? I can help her, I can give her whatever she wants, I've helped her through enough to be owed something!"

Sora frowned, straightening up at last as it looked like Riku wasn't going to attack him. "Do you honestly think it's about who can give her more _stuff_? Get off it Riku, it's about who'd make her _happy_. Don't you _care_ about that?"

"Of course I do!" he replied loudly again. "I can make her happy! I know I can!"

"Riku," Sora began, going slow so he wouldn't begin yelling as well, "it's not what _you_ think, it's what _she_ thinks. You think she _owes_ you something for being her _friend?_ You're crazy! I never said anything because I wanted her to make up her own mind, not having someone make it up for her! _It's Kairi's choice who she likes, me or you or someone else, and you've gotta learn to live with that!_"

A loud gasp from the door that Riku had never closed drew both their attentions, and Riku's face went slack and Sora nearly dropped his sword when they saw Kairi standing there, watching both of them with her hand over her mouth and her eyes wide. She couldn't believe what she was hearing; her eyes kept darting back and forth between them, finally coming to rest after a long time on Riku as her hand slowly dropped from her mouth.

"Kairi," Riku began, voice full of honest regret now, "I didn't-"

"Riku," she interrupted in a whisper that still showed her shock, "please… not now."

"But Kairi-"

"_Please_," she half-begged, half-commanded, eyes shifting away from him. "Please," she repeated, "just… go, and let me think."

Sora couldn't help but feel sorry for Riku; no matter how he expressed it, even if the motivations were a bit misguided, he honestly cared for her – but that misguidance and self-confidence had just ruined his chance with her for now. And he knew it. Opening his mouth to make one last plea, he closed it without speaking and walked out the door, being careful to avoid her, not shutting it after him.

Sora sank onto the bench again, feeling incredibly drained, and set the sword at his feet before hanging his head. He heard Kairi take a tentative step back and thought she would leave, and the sound of the door and sudden lack of sunlight would have confirmed it had it not been for her footsteps and her… aura, he suspected, approaching him. His sword teacher back on the Isles had made a big deal about sensing "auras," instilling it in all of them so they could close their eyes and use some sixth sense to "feel" where another person was in the room. He was so keyed up now, even with the drained feeling, that he didn't need to concentrate in order to sense her moving closer to him, finally stopping only a couple of feet away. "Sora…" she began hesitantly, not sounding very happy.

"I'm sorry, Kairi. You didn't need to hear that." He didn't look up, forearms resting across his knees.

She sat down on the bench as well, over a foot away from him and not moving any closer. "So it's true, then? You like me?"

"Does everyone know?" he asked with a kind of bitterly ironic humor. "Guess I shouldn't be surprised… I'm no good at hiding things."

"You hid it from me well, and the others… I only had a hunch, and I only got that last week." He could feel her looking at him, but he didn't look up to meet her eyes. "Did you mean the other thing you said, too?"

"Which other thing?"

"About why you never said anything… about how it was my choice."

"…Yeah," he replied, sighing. "I didn't want to pressure you… I'm sorry, I just want you to be happy."

There was several seconds of silence from next to him, and finally Kairi broke it by saying, "Sora, I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything…" He finally looked up, standing up at the same time and preparing to go. "It _is_ your choice. It's what'll make you happy. Me and Riku'll be all right, don't worry. And I… You're a good friend, too, Kairi, and I'd like to stay friends." Shaking his hair out of his face, Sora began to head for the door – until a small hand grabbed his and pulled him to a stop. He looked back in surprise at Kairi, who was watching him with an almost confused look.

"I've only known you for a month and a half," she said, almost to herself. "I mean, I know you don't need that long to become friends, but I thought you needed more than that for…"

"For what?" he asked, not pulling away.

Kairi flushed faintly but didn't look away from him. "For… anything else to develop."

His heart leapt, but he beat it down, unwilling to jump to conclusions just yet. "What do you mean?"

"I mean how in the heck did I get to know you so well?" she asked, still looking confused. "I can give you a list of your habits now, just because they keep getting stuck in my head. You know you squint when you read? You just do it all the time, no matter what it is, and you never give up on anything. Even fights. You like to laugh and grin and make everyone feel good, and everyone likes you because you're just such a fun person, and I've had more fun studying math with you for the past six weeks than I can ever remember with any other schoolwork."

"Kairi-"

"And it makes no _sense_ and _confuses_ me but at the same time it makes all the sense in the world. Don't you get it?"

He didn't respond, still unwilling to believe this would go where he wanted it to go, because he didn't think he could take the pain.

Kairi pulled herself to her feet using his hand, not letting go even once she was up, and looked him straight in the eye. "I have no idea how, or why, or when, but at some point I fell for you, too." His breathing stopped as she continued. "Like I said, it makes no sense, but they always say that this isn't supposed to make sense, but they underestimated it _severely_, and-"

"Kairi," he interrupted when he could breathe again.

"What?"

He didn't stop to think; he just did it. Pulling her to him with their joined hands, he finally did what he'd been wanting to do since the first time he'd met her and put his arm around her waist – and kissed her. He had no prior experience with kissing, but it just felt like the right thing to do, and he could feel her tentativeness as a match for his own as she hesitantly kissed him back. He didn't back away as she slowly raised her free hand to rest against his cheek, and she didn't jump when he pulled her just a little bit closer, so he finally decided they must be doing _something_ right.

And of course their private moment just had to go and be interrupted by a loud SLAM as the doors were unceremoniously shoved open, causing them both to jump and break apart in a hurry. "YUFFIE!" Aerith's voice echoed through the room, and the girl in pink didn't even realize what she'd interrupted as she dashed away in the direction of the Third District.

"Uh…" Sora said, turning to look at Kairi a little blankly. "Do you know what that's about?"

"No… I followed Riku over here while Cloud and Leon fought." She turned slightly pink, which Sora thought only made her look cuter, and he couldn't keep himself from smiling at her, which only turned her more pink. "I, ah… That was really nice, Sora," she said, unable to look directly at him.

"I meant it, Kairi. I want you to be happy."

And finally she smiled, and she reached out to take his hand in hers, squeezing it a little as she stepped closer to him. "You already make me happy, you loon."

And he couldn't help but grin his widest and pull her in for another kiss – this one slightly less awkward.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Cloud and Leon stood face to face in the one ring left uncrowded with wide-eyed spectators. There hadn't been a Competition this intense in years, and everyone was focused on the last two left, wondering just what they'd see _this_ time.

They had no idea what they were in for.

"Seems like we always end up like this," Cloud commented as he watched the spectators back away a little further.

"Just our habit, I suppose."

"All right, boys," said Sanero, stepping up once more and glancing between them both. "This is it. You two ready?" Both of them had had a rest and a restorative potion, so both nodded their heads without hesitation, swinging their blades into guard position. "Don't forget to stop if I say stop, now." They both nodded again; if their practice bouts were any indication, the match might just get ended by the time limit this time. "Now you know the rules, so you obey 'em. And don't kill each other fer god's sakes!"

Both of them smiled at that, a little grimly, and shook their heads minutely.

"NOW! BEGIN!"

Cloud had a bad habit of underestimating his own skill in comparison to Riku's. There was no doubt Riku worked hard at his own skills and was very talented, but when push came to shove, as it did in the last round, even before practicing with Leon, Cloud was still above the silver-haired boy, though neither of them knew it. Riku's main tactic was an all-out assault right at the beginning, which was usually very effective but used up his energy much faster. Cloud had the stamina to hold that off and to keep going afterwards. And that stamina had only improved with fighting Leon – and, ironically, Sora, who was faster than either of them.

So after a month of practices with Leon, both of them could read each other like an open book – and neither held back anything.

The gunblade and the buster sword met with a clash of metal and a shower of sparks, making the onlookers jump back as they both whipped their blades around and brought them in for the attack quicker than could be seen. And another, and another, turning and moving back and forth and pushing each other around the area with their swords while never relenting on their attacks, each as fierce as he could be. The crowd stood as far back as it could manage, everyone's eyes wide and nearly silent at the display before them.

Leon brought the gunblade around in a quick waist-level slash which Cloud parried with a circular flip of his own blade, only to turn the block into an attack as he tried to bring the massive sword down on Leon's head, which the gunblade wielder caught on his edge and forced back, cutting viciously down diagonally, making Cloud jump back into a block, and over and over and over again until, at last, as with Cloud and Riku their feet were leaving the ground.

There were certain techniques that were known more widely outside Traverse, and while Leon certainly wanted to learn the ninjas' form of high jumping, in a way he already knew part of it – and had begun teaching Cloud. What seemed natural and normal coming from Yuffie, who was light, small, and a ninja, after all, made even Bersi and Sanero's jaws drop as Cloud and Leon began leaping in the air, still fighting at the same furious speed, but hanging in the air for several seconds before falling to earth again. Both young men were leaping over the heads of the crowd, blades clashing as many as six times each before they touched ground again only to spring at each other once more. More speed and more exertion flew from them, and soon, though it went completely against the rules of staying inside the square, Cloud, followed quickly by Leon, were kicking off the walls of the plaza in the middle of their jumps to give them even more force and speed. The people below them could only gape in amazement.

Cloud wasn't sure how much time had passed – it seemed both like eternities and nothing in that concentrating state – but something suddenly broke through the battle-induced focus, the absolute _last_ sound he wanted to hear right then: a faint _crack_ from his left arm, the artificial one, that immediately made him shift the buster sword to his right hand to continue blocking and attacking. He knew what had happened: he'd put too much strain on it in one day, overloading its capacity for abuse as he was also using the non-living metal to block a couple of Leon's attacks, and it was giving out on him. He would have to fight one-handed now, or forfeit; fortunately, he _was_ trained to fight with only his right at the same speed he fought with both.

Unfortunately, however, Leon was as well – and he could fight just as well with either hand as with both. He'd been switching back and forth between his right and the left throughout the entire fight, and Cloud _knew_ that he'd realized what had happened as well – and although he knew that in a practice bout Leon would stop to make sure that his friend was all right, this was no practice bout, and even if Leon halted Cloud wouldn't. So he could actually see the decision in Leon's eyes to press this, press _him_ harder, and put a quick end to it so they could get Cloud the attention he needed.

He wasn't wrong, either. From somewhere unfathomable Leon dredged up just a little more strength, just a little more speed, and Cloud continued to block, but more and more he was reduced to twisting out of the way and after only a minute he could barely attack anymore. The feeling in his stump was numbing away, and control of the hand came awkwardly, and his right arm was starting to tire with the force Leon was bringing to bear on it – and after awhile he just couldn't take it anymore. The next time he landed, going to one knee with the buster sword held in a weak guard in front of him, he didn't spring up again.

Leon landed in a fighter's crouch six feet in front of him, gunblade held out and ready to the side, and they only realized then that they were both breathing heavily, exhausted, and sweating all over. The spectators were still stunned into silence, and as Leon straightened up, feeling the fatigue in every muscle in his body, Cloud looked up at him very calmly. "I yield," he heaved, still breathless enough so that it was hardly understandable. "Find Cid."

Leon nodded, but before he could move a tall form came up beside them both: Aerith, smiling, holding two small bottles and giving one to each of them, which they quickly swallowed. The bitter taste they were reluctantly getting used to swamped them for a moment, and both began coughing, the nicks and bruises they'd managed to inflict on each other during the fight disappearing almost instantly and large portions of their energy being restored to them. After both of them had stopped shuddering from the effects, they shook their heads, and Leon held out one gloved hand to his friend. Cloud grasped it and pulled himself easily to his feet. And only then did the crowd break out of its stupor to roar with amazement and celebration, louder than it had ever been.

They both looked at the people around them, more than a little stunned by the reaction, and the space around them and Aerith quickly disappeared as people swarmed in to congratulate both of them and rave about the fight and their techniques and the speed and the jumping and everything. But Leon saw the wince on Cloud's face and the difficulty he was having with his arm, and so he began trying to break a path through the people to get the three of them out of there and to somewhere private they could have Cid look at Cloud. It was very hard to do, as people didn't seem to get the idea that they wanted to leave and kept trying to talk to them, and eventually he just reached back and pulled Aerith in front of him from her place beside Cloud. She instantly understood, and her calming personality, and the fact that they were leaving with the healer, made people move aside much more quickly.

Eventually they made it up the stairs, around the terrace, and into the Hotel; the owner was a rather sensible man who understood what they needed and provided them temporarily with the keys to one of the rooms, done all in green, and they quickly retreated there to let Aerith examine Cloud. Making him sit on the bed, she quickly pushed up his now-slashed sleeve and pulled off the now-slashed glove, checking on his arm above the metal joining. In only a few moments, she nodded. "You're okay, at least in the ways I can help you."

"It's the arm. Something's dislocated." Cloud actually had to hold up his left hand with his right to show it to them. The hand itself had popped partially out of the wrist joint, exposing wires that Leon could only assume were something like nerves and providing him no pivot point for his wrist and almost no control for his fingers. No wonder he'd stopped fighting with both hands. "It's happened before, I just need Cid and his toolkit. Where is he?"

Aerith frowned slightly, turning to look at Leon. "You didn't see him come back with Yuffie, did you?"

Leon couldn't help a mild frown as well; she was still running around in that condition…? "No, but maybe he took her home?"

"What?" Cloud asked.

Leon briefly explained what had happened in the fight between he and Yuffie, making Cloud's eyes widen a bit in surprise, then narrow again in concentration. "If Yuffie doesn't want to be found, then she won't be… Not even by him. But she can't just not get something like that treated."

The brunet nodded and looked at Aerith. "We'll both go look for them. Whoever finds one or both of them brings them back here immediately, agreed?"

Aerith couldn't help a smile. "As long as you tell me your name."

And he couldn't help but smile back – very slightly, but it was there. "Leon."

"Aerith."

"Then let's go."

Leaving Cloud (and the gunblade) behind and each taking one of the keys, Aerith left through the front of the hotel, being better able to deal with the crowds (both now and at any other time), while Leon went out on the small balcony attached to the room. Wonder of wonders there were only a few people haunting the alley below, the one with his former "usual" entrance to the waterway, the path he planned to take to the Third District to avoid the crush of people. He had very little hope of finding the ninja, but a large man like Cid couldn't fit in the small spaces she could, and there was at least a chance he would be at his home.

Vaulting over the side of the balcony, Leon landed a little awkwardly, reminding him once again that he needed to find that Master Carran and see if he could learn the ninjas' way of jumping. Ignoring the few people who turned to congratulate him, he strode off down the alley, past the dumpling stand, and straight into the water. Pulling the key to the padlock out of his pocket, he quickly opened the contraption and went inside, shutting it behind him before anyone could really tell where he had gone.

There hadn't been much rain lately, so the water level had gone down somewhat, which he could only be grateful for. He'd never fallen on his face down here, but it was always a possibility, and one he didn't want to have happen at all. The path was much darker than he remembered it being, and he realized with a mild curse that the batteries in the lamps he'd put down there must have finally run out. Pulling off his right glove, Leon muttered to himself quickly, and a small seed of fire began to grow in the air two inches from his palm, growing quickly into a fierce, though heatless, little blaze about three inches in diameter that lit the way before him very nicely.

The last thing he expected to find was someone else in the waterway – but there she was, the elusive ninja, sitting sideways in the door to the stairs and leaning her back against the arch, head tilted back and eyes closed. The fire illuminated her better as he got closer, tinting her skin like a tan and pulling out orange highlights in her hair, and with her small size she almost looked like some sort of faerie out of the old tales.

Her head slowly tilted to the side and one eye opened about halfway as she registered the light from the fire. "Who is tha?" Her speech was still a little muzzy, a little slurred, and it was clear she hadn't even gotten herself one of those infernal potions to help with her concussion. He slowly approached her and knelt, making sure not to make her run away, and she blinked up at him in an effort to make her eyes work properly through the concussion and the hazy light. "Ohhhhh, it's you. 'Sit over then?"

"Yes, it's over." She didn't seem inclined to bolt, which was a good thing, but he would rather take her back to Aerith of her own volition rather than by using any force.

"Betcha won," she said, eyes closing again and head once more falling back, and she winced a little as it hit the arch with a small bump. "Y'blocked m'shuriken, you gotta be good… too good… bastard…" But she cursed without any feeling behind it, and he knew it was just more of her babblings.

It was definitely time to get her back to Aerith. "Come on, we have to let your friend finish healing you."

"Don' want it," she protested, almost like a child, rolling her head away from him.

"Yuffie…"

"_Don'_," she insisted.

He sighed; she might kill him for doing this later, but right now it was the best thing for her, and she was small enough to make it easy. A muttered word extinguished the fireball in his hand, and he carefully slid that arm beneath her knees and his other behind her shoulders, ignoring her somewhat garbled protests as he carefully rose to his feet, cradling her against him. She hit his chest a couple of times in protest, but soon gave up on that and just curled against him, almost like a cat.

Leon shook his head. This girl was full of contradictions, was more annoying than anyone else in this town – and yet that annoyance only made her more interesting. In a place where people were afraid to step on his shadow, she'd look him straight in the eye and tell him exactly what she thought of him whether he wanted to hear it or not. He'd never really met anyone like her in his life.

It had become more than the money, more than helping a friend. Now, Leon just honestly wanted to get to know her – because she _was_ different.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Aerith had found Cid in the First District, checking out Master Carran's home and still searching for Yuffie, and together they'd fetched his tools from the Accessory shop and made their way back to the Hotel where Cloud was still camped out on the bed, gingerly testing his arm. Rattling off a mild tirade about how these things weren't exactly indestructible and what in the hell did he think he was doing, the pilot-cum-mechanic had pulled out several screwdrivers and a pair of tweezers and began hooking Cloud's arm back together while Aerith told him about the fight. It wasn't a long process, but the sudden reconnection of nerves made Cloud jump and grit his teeth every time it happened, though he didn't cry out. Finally Cid could simply take both pieces, one in each hand, and pop it back together, good as new. "I'll wanna look at it more later, but right now you gotta make a public appearance an'-" his look quickly went to Aerith, who blushed faintly "-I know there's other stuff you wanna do. It'll hold you; come by t'morrow an' we'll sort the rest of it out."

"Thanks, Cid," Cloud said, standing and extending his hand to him.

"Can I get some help?" a deep voice called from outside the back.

Recognizing Leon's voice, Cloud led the other two to the balcony and looked over – and all of them were amazed to find the man in leather standing down there with Yuffie apparently passed out in his arms, which was _not_ a good sign. Aerith's eyes widened as Cloud asked, "Where was she?"

"In the waterway. I can't climb up there holding her, come down and help me."

Cloud quickly jumped over the side, and working together they managed to hand Yuffie up to Aerith and Cid while moving her the least they could, and her guardian carried her over to the bed that Cloud had recently vacated. The two young men climbed up quickly and joined the small group as Aerith sat down next to her friend and once again placed her hands on her head.

"She only made it worse running off like that…" she murmured, then shook her head and closed her eyes, the green light blooming around her hands again. The one good thing about Yuffie being passed out was that she couldn't complain; head trauma patients could too easily slip into comas while sleeping, or even die, before a healer could see them. Yuffie _had_ made her injury worse by slipping away, though Aerith couldn't tell how; she just poured more power into her friend to heal her.

Within twenty seconds Yuffie had returned to her normal color and her breathing had deepened; even though Yuffie didn't open her eyes when Aerith did, the healer still smiled. "She's really sleeping now. She lost a lot of energy, but she's fine, and she should be up in about an hour."

Cid nodded, taking his customary toothpick out of his mouth as if it were a cigarette. "I'll stay here with her then, you kids run along an' have fun."

"I don't like the crowds. I'll stay, you can go." But the look that Cid gave Leon at that statement made the gunblade wielder quickly change his mind, and he followed Cloud and Aerith out of the room as they left.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Yeeeeeeeeah SoKai! Yes, Riku knows a lot sooner than Joey in the movie - but don't worry, that particular storyline isn't at _all_ over. I'm devious and plotty, remember? It's gonna come back. But I'm going to be trying to shift more attention onto Leon and Yuffie from here on out - partially because that's the way the movie goes, and partially because they're supposed to be the main pairing. And now that they've actually sort of "come together" things can really get started - plus you get to find out about their pasts and what makes them tick. _Everyone_ in this thing has a past - even Cid, even Bersi and Sanero - but the storyline has needed some to be kept quiet. By the end it'll all be out in the open, though.

A very big THANK YOU and wonderful credit to AngelKairi for her idea that she let me swipe - the metal armguards in Yuffie's gloves. She first did it in her story _Rebuilding Lives_ (which is highly entertaining, go read it now) and said I could use her idea for my Yuffie. It was just such a "Yuffie" thing to do that it was perfect for her, and perfect for _Taming_. It'll also pop up at some point in _Last Resort_.

Remember, **review replies are up in my livejournal!** Let me know what you thought!


	8. One Step at a Time

DISCLAIMER: Still waiting for my free Squall or Cid within ten days of calling... (and still not mine.)

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry about the delay, life's been... interesting lately. But here is chapter eight, a talk-heavy chapter to make up for my severe action obsession that came through last time, and nearly as long. And with plenty of Yuffie-cursing. I can't help but find it really amusing that she's got the worst mouth of the lot in this story.

And... after five years, I finally finished VIII (yes, I am that pathetic). There's a lot of reasons why I didn't before this - I had the PC version, for one thing, and my computer kept erasing my files. But even with that happening I'd always get to the Lunatic Pandora and fight Seifer the last time and then just... lose interest. Story was over, essentially, so I got bored. I tend to do that on a lot of games. But I've finished it at last, and I've definitely decided that I like KH-Squall better than VIII-Squall. He just works better in KH, I think; there's only so much "whatever" I can take from a main character, and his complete turnaround at the beginning of Disc 3 has bugged me since I first saw it. But that's why I write KH and not VIII. Plus his jacket in KH is so much cooler without the ruff, and he looks good with long hair :) Working on finishing VII now; I just have to go kick some Sephiroth butt after I manage to breed a gold chocobo and pick up the Knights of the Round materia. Then maybe onto Parasite Eve.

I've only had my console for a year, can you tell?

Tossed up a one-shot Squffie last week called "Gusts," in case anyone's interested. Very short; I wrote it in an hour. I might decide to go a little nuts and do a bunch of weather-related short stories like that, 'cause writing something short was actually pretty fun. Normally I'm a crazy person with length (as seen below), but trying to fit a whole story in just two or three pages wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But that story's not this story, and this story's the one you're reading, so here ya go, everyone. Usual entry up over at www . livejournal . com / users / tairako (copy, paste, delete spaces), along with review replies. You guys rock, you know that?

(Soundtrack: "Passion," by Utada Hikaru, theme from KH2)

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Yuffie's mind swam hazily back to the surface of consciousness, her memory filled with only half-seen images of somewhere dark except for a small ball of light and a… presence, that was the only word she could come up with for it, that had brought her out of that dark. Altogether far too metaphorical for her when her mind snapped back into place at last and she at last remembered the fight between her and Leon, and exactly _what_ had happened after it when she'd apparently been entirely out of her mind. She silently cursed herself for being so stupid – having Aerith as a friend tended to give her more knowledge of medical situations than she thought she'd have use for, and she _knew_ running away with a concussion was idiotic – and winced in anticipated pain as she gingerly touched the place Leon had smashed with his… weapon, whatever it was. She was vastly surprised to find no blood, no bruise, not even any tenderness, and it was only then that she registered the softness she was lying on rather than hard stone, and she sat up with a groan, trying to figure out what was going on.

"There y'are." It was Cid's voice – well, that only made sense; he was her guardian, of course he'd be concerned when she got her skull cracked. He was seated rather negligently in a chair next to a circular table in the middle of the green-decorated room, boots propped on the tabletop and hands behind his head just like a man twenty years younger. "Aerith was right, as usual. Before you ask, yer in the Hotel, yer fight ended 'bout an hour an' a half ago, an' fer some reason you ran away and holed up in the waterway, where that Leon guy found you 'bout an hour ago."

The Hotel. Well, that explained the bed. And the horrible decorating job. Green was good, but this was way too much overkill. The ninja swung her feet off the bed and carefully stood up to make sure she wouldn't keel over, and cheerfully discovered that all negative effects of the fight were gone as she wasn't even tired. "So who won?"

"Leon. Managed to break Cloud's arm."

Yuffie whistled lowly; she knew that he meant the artificial one, and remembered very well how carefully Cid had built the limb, adjusting it over the years. She'd almost thought that _nothing_ could break it.

"Damn straight. I didn't see it, seein' as I was lookin' fer you-" and he hit her with that hard-edged Cid look that promised she was in for it later. Seeing as this one was technically her fault and she'd been pretty stupid for running away with a concussion, she didn't try to kick him this time. "-but from what I've been hearin' it was pretty amazin'. Like somethin' back at the Academy or the like."

"Wish I could've seen it. _DON'T_ say it," she warned, when he started opening his mouth to make the obvious comment.

"Don't fuckin' do it again, then, an' we won't keep raggin' you."

"Gee, how nice and understanding."

"You know I win at sarcasm."

Damn him. He did, but barely. Still, she dropped the verbal sparring match as she could feel the energy creeping back into her, starting to make her even more twitchy than normal; one of Aerith's healings, of which this was thankfully only the third she'd had, always made her fidget with something like nervous energy. "I've gotta get outta here; I'm going to the dojo."

"Not gonna join in th' festivities?" Cid asked, without any surprise.

"When do I ever?"

"Keep an eye out fer Kairi. I haven't seen her since I went off to look fer you," he said, dropping his boots from the table at last and standing.

"Check," Yuffie called back over her shoulder as she disappeared through the door to the balcony, intending to cut through the waterway to the Third District and enter the Second District from that direction, thereby avoiding most of the crowds. The alley was almost deserted as she leapt easily from the balcony, hearing the main door to the room close behind her guardian as he left. She had a significant advantage over her stepsister; with no one to tempt her, and no friends that he disapproved of, Cid pretty much left her to her own devices and trusted her (admittedly sometimes skewed) judgment. That request to keep an eye out for Kairi was more a command to see that she got back home without Riku than anything else. Maybe some people would think she had the raw end of the deal, but Yuffie was perfectly fine with it.

And in all honestly she did attend the Festival most years; she just didn't stay very long. It didn't take much time to find birthday presents for Kairi and Cid for the following year, and maybe something for herself if she had the money, and then she was out of there. She would be doing that later, but right now she needed to work out that energy, and the dojo was the best place to do it.

The padlock that someone had put on the grate in the past year was child's play to her, and she had it open and was sliding the pick back in its hiding place within ten seconds. Locking it behind her, just to make sure that no one would see anything suspicious, she trotted down the saturated path without a care for the murky darkness and not placing one foot wrong.

But suddenly she was seeing another light ahead of her; faint, but there, and as she rounded the corner she was confronted by the one person she hadn't expected – Leon. He was sitting on the stairs that led up to the deserted house, facing in her direction, his sword-gun at his feet and a ball of fire hovering over his shoulder. And he was looking right at her; she hadn't exactly been quiet coming in, and the echoing quality of the cavern had made her splashes carry.

She felt strange with him watching her like he was: closely, almost as if she was a puzzle, but the only expression coming through in his eyes. And even more strange was that she wasn't getting angry, annoyed, or pissed off as he continued watching her, as she did with everyone, and she stopped in the water and watched him in return. The not-nervous energy wouldn't let her stay still though, and she began bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet, making the water slosh around her ankles.

She definitely had the feeling they were both trying not to piss the other off.

Leon broke the silence first. "How do you feel?"

"Like I didn't have a concussion an hour and a half ago," she replied honestly, starting to move forward again. "Cid said you found me down here?"

He nodded as she stepped onto the dry rock and began shaking off her sneakers. "I was looking for him, and stumbled across you. I had to get you to Aerith."

The sudden – if very, very minor – note of apology in his voice made her frown. "What did you _do_ to get me to Aerith?" She rather doubted she'd walked under her own power, but if he'd slung her over his shoulder like bag of rice, he was getting the knee, rescue or no rescue.

"Carried you," he said, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. And perhaps it was. "And I swear I didn't do anything improper, so you don't have to mutilate me."

She made a face. "Guess I have a reputation for that."

"Perhaps. I was warned to reassure you." He stood at last, picking up his weapon and slinging it over his shoulder, and the little ball of fire followed his movements, casting him in an odd, yet somehow suitable, low light. "Why aren't you up there with everyone else?"

"Too many people I don't like." She started bouncing slightly again, and to his credit he didn't ask her to stop. "Hey," she said with sudden inspiration, "wanna fight again, this time without the bone-breaking and everything?"

Leon raised his eyebrows a little; _now_ she wanted to fight? "I've had enough for the day, thanks, but why are you so hyper?"

"I'm always like this after I'm healed, I don't know why." It was strange; here she was, wanting to jump in place, and she was managing to have a conversation. A fairly normal conversation at that, with no yelling or anything. With this guy, no less, who, she'd learned by simply keeping her ears open, had a reputation for being the biggest misanthrope the town had ever seen. Well. Reputations weren't everything. Restlessness getting the better of her, she moved up next to him and held a hand over the flame, and was only slightly startled to find it not at all warm. "What's with the fire?"

"Oh, just… something I know. Helps to see."

"Come on, there's gotta be more than that since it's not burning me." Now she was swiping her hand along the top as one would with a candle flame, and he finally indicated she should stop something by grabbing her wrist to still her arm. "Awww, you're no fun."

"It makes it really hard to concentrate when someone plays with it. Just please don't."

It was mostly the fact that he said "please" that made her give in; usually people just ordered or yelled. "All right, all right." He dropped her wrist as she pulled her hand back, and she barely managed not to shake her head at the strangeness of the situation; he'd restrained her and she hadn't hurt him. This was just getting weirder by the second. "All right," she said for the third time, though in a completely different tone, "we're getting out of here and finding some sun because you look like a ghost." Yuffie turned and began jogging, nearly bouncing, back towards the way to the alley, but stopped when she hit the water and didn't hear him behind her.

She looked back and he was still in the same place, the same stance even, watching her with an odd look. "We?"

She shrugged. "Why not? It's me or the big crowd up there, Leon," she added with her most gleefully sadistic grin, to which he only rolled his eyes – but, to her surprise, he began walking towards her. She quickly hid the expression before he saw it. "Come on, I know just the place."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Just the place" had turned out to be the terrace of the bell tower, now abandoned by the people such as Cid who'd used it to watch the fights for the chaos below. The plazas in the First and Second Districts were a mess of tables and makeshift tents propped on haphazard frames, and almost the entire populace of the town seemed to be milling through the cracks. One couldn't escape the noise even inside, which was why Leon had abandoned his apartment in the First District for the much cooler, quieter waterway.

Yuffie had led him over the dumpling seller and the hotel, then easily opened the lock to the Gizmo Shop for them to pass through. Through the door in the opposite side of the building was a very legitimate ladder that they had climbed, putting them several stories above everyone, high enough that even the ninja wouldn't jump it. Leon hadn't been up there yet, and he had to admit that the view was impressive – for Traverse, anyway. And they were far enough away from the crowd that the individual words died away into a constant buzz that was still relatively loud but not quite so jarring. If the crowd hadn't been down there, it would've been a very restful place indeed.

The ninja was now jumping in circles, working off the excess energy, while he was sprawled face-up on the cool stone of the floor, hands behind his head as a sort of pillow. He didn't often relax so much in front of people, but somehow it was different when it was her. She wasn't terrified of him, which probably helped.

After a few minutes, Yuffie had apparently let off enough of her energy to be able to at least sit down, and she dropped unceremoniously next to him and peered at him curiously. For some reason she didn't speak, though, and finally he turned his head to look at her when her eyes had been on him too long to ignore. "What?"

"Why in the hell does everyone here think you're an inhuman bastard?" she asked bluntly, but not insultingly. She really was wondering. "I mean, yeah, you don't talk as much as other people and you don't spend time with them, but that doesn't mean you're a horrible person."

"I don't know. I guess I don't help things, though," he replied as he sat up, bending his left leg and propping his elbow on the knee. "I don't like being here, and everyone here seems to expect you to just… fit in. Be happy to be here. Love it or at least like it. And it's not a bad place, but it's all the same, and that's tiring."

"I know what you mean," she said as she pulled off her orange gloves, only now realizing they were slashed open and the metal plates inset in them were showing. _Must be from when I blocked him… I know Sora didn't do that._ "It's all small and boring and nothing ever changes – and when something big _does_ happen, if it's bad, people pretend that person doesn't exist or it didn't ever happen, and that's just stupid."

"Speaking from experience?"

"Maybe." But she didn't offer any further explanation. "But why do you stay here, then? Why not go back to the Bastion?"

Leon hesitated, and she knew in that moment that he'd never told anyone why – not even Cloud or Sora. She was fully expecting him to say something along the lines of it not being her business, but to her total surprise something entirely different came out of his mouth. "The doctors said to."

"Doctors?" Blink. "You sick or something?"

"Not for me, for my grandfather." She kept watching him, and after a moment he continued. "He's sick, and has been for a long time. Too ill to come out in public, so most people here don't even know he exists. But he can't stand not doing anything, and the doctors knew if he stayed at the Bastion, he'd keep trying to get up and do his work. So they said to move him to somewhere where there wouldn't be any work for him, where he could rest, and this was the cheapest place. We don't have much money so I couldn't hire a caretaker, so I had to leave the Academy and come with him. We go back about once a month for a few days for the doctors to check on him." _And to keep me from going insane here_, he added in his own mind. It was the most he'd spoken at one time since he'd come to Traverse, and for some reason it didn't feel out of place to have said it. Maybe Sora was right, in a way; he really hadn't even been making an effort to live in this place because it didn't feel like home, which only made him fight the feeling, which made the feeling stronger, which made him fight more. It was a cycle, a bad cycle to be in, but one he didn't know how to break.

But Yuffie latched onto something else. "The Academy?" she asked with surprise, blinking. "You mean the military academy?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Cid went there," she explained, leaning her elbows on her knees and putting her head in her hands. "He said when I woke up that your fight with Cloud sounded like something from the Academy. Guess he was right, huh?"

Leon nodded. "He was. I was almost finished, but I couldn't leave my grandfather to fend for himself. When he's better, I'm going back."

Once again she blinked in surprise. "So you're not staying here?"

"Of course not."

That should have been an obvious fact, and she knew that. But somehow she'd gotten used to seeing him around the town, around the districts, and now he just sort of existed there with the rest of the people. But from what she could remember about Hollow Bastion (which was actually fairly little as she'd been eight when her parents died), he seemed like he would fit in much better there, in a bigger space with many different types of people. At the very least, if he was as antisocial as everyone made him out to be, it would be much easier to be ignored there. "What about your parents? Couldn't they help?"

"They're dead," he said calmly.

"Oh… Sorry."

"It was a long time ago." And that was a very obvious dismissal of that topic. 

But now that she'd gotten him talking she was getting more and more curious, so she simply switched lines of questioning. "What's it like over there now?"

"At the Bastion?" She nodded, and he paused for a moment, trying to find a way to explain a place he knew as well as the back of his hand – too well to explain well. "It's very busy," he said at last, knowing that didn't say anything. "There's always things happening, and different things to see and do, even at night. …I'm not very good at explaining things like that."

Yuffie sighed, a sigh of defeat. "But it's not like here, that's the important thing." She flopped back, arms spread to either side, staring up at the sky. "I wanna get out of here. But I don't have any clue how I'm gonna do it."

"Why don't you just leave?"

"Can't. Not old enough, no money, and no transportation. Unless…" Suddenly her eyes sparked and she sat bolt upright again, staring at him with a look that suddenly made him very worried. "_You_ wouldn't be willing to get me out of here, would you?"

"What?"

"Well you're from there, so you know the place, and you're- How old _are_ you?"

"Almost twenty," he said with some reluctance, not having any idea where this was going. Now he definitely knew what Cloud meant when he said that Yuffie didn't waste any time.

She grinned triumphantly, exactly what he was afraid of. "Perfect! You're emancipated, you've gotta have some form of transportation, and you know the area. In December can I hitch a ride back to the Bastion?"

"What?" he asked again, blankly.

"I. Want. Out. Is it really that hard to understand?" She poked his ribs with one finger, almost making him jump; it had been a long time since he'd had much contact with anyone. "You say you hate it here and it's too small and everything and you know I agree with you, so why is it so hard to believe that I want to leave?"

He had no idea how to respond to that. Sure, he wouldn't mind getting to know her better, but this was completely out of the blue and until perhaps an hour ago he could've sworn she'd want to avoid him at all costs – and now she was essentially asking him to help rearrange her entire life? "… Why are you asking me?" he finally responded, baffled and not bothering to hide it. She was interesting, but she was _confusing_ as well. "Why are you even talking to me now? You always ran before."

Yuffie could feel her face start to burn as he reminded her of exactly what she'd done when they'd met in the past, with her being stubborn beyond all reason. Admittedly, he hadn't been much better than her; it seemed that neither of them kept their social skills in great working order. And with most others, she wouldn't care – but he knew the feeling, that specific feeling of being crammed in a place that was too small and you couldn't escape. The only difference was she'd been here from the time when she was still little enough to make it work – it was the place itself, and certain events, that had changed her. He'd never fit in to begin with.

He reminded her of Cid, in a way. Cid was comfortable, and as familiar as the beat-up armchair he'd rescued from some junk heap and adopted as his own eight years before. Leon wasn't precisely _comfortable_, but she got the impression that he understood where she was coming from as no one but Cid and Aerith did, making him one more person she could potentially talk to when she didn't want to confide in her guardian or even her kindhearted best friend.

And of course she couldn't say any of this to him. Instead, she shrugged, forcing herself to remain just as casual as she'd been through the rest of their talk, and thankfully felt the flush receding from her skin. "You can leave," she said simply. "If you want, I'll help out with the trip and taking care of your grandfather and everything. If I'm conscious," she added wryly.

"Conscious?" he repeated, momentarily distracted from the main line of conversation.

"Motion sickness," she explained briefly. "On anything that moves. I usually take a sedative and conk out like a light."

"Oh." 

Leon didn't seem to have anything else to add after that, so she pressed on. "So can I go with you?"

He debated some more with himself for a few moments – was it right for him to do something like that? – and then finally looked at her again. "Only if you have your guardian's full permission. I _don't_," he quickly added as she opened her mouth again, certain to protest that by that time she would be in charge of her own self, "want him chasing after me and trying to castrate me."

And she grinned widely. "Talking to Sora, eh? That one was actually pretty mild."

"All the more reason for me not to want him after me."

"Eh, he's harmless – mostly." She definitely enjoyed watching him squirm – not that Leon actually squirmed, that would just be too much, but he definitely shifted his weight and looked away. In anyone else it probably would have been a squirm. "He's great with a spear," she added helpfully, and saw the minute wince that he hadn't been able to hold back. "Very good at poking with it."

"Yuffie…"

"And precision cutting."

"Yuffie-"

"And getting in close from far away."

He groaned, letting his head fall forward onto his hand, digging gloved fingers into his hair. "I get the picture."

She smiled angelically at him, a look she knew he wouldn't believe but still felt good to use. "Just being informative," she added helpfully, and let the smile fade as he shook his head. "Hey, what's your last name? Everyone always calls you just 'Leon.'"

"Leonheart."

She snorted, loudly and derisively. "_Leon Leonheart?_ No disrespect intended, but what the fuck were your parents thinking?"

He shook his head again, sitting up straight once more as he did so. "It's not Leon Leonheart. Leon's my nickname – it fits me better."

"I'll be the judge of that. What's your real name then?"

Rather than tell her off for thinking she could know him better than he knew himself, and thus better able to judge nicknames, he just told her. After all, his real name was known throughout the Academy; "Leon" was just what he went by. "Squall."

"Hmmm…" She settled back a little, eyes narrowed as if he were a puzzle she was finding extremely complicated. He didn't need to ask what she was thinking about; the "Squall or Leon" was clearly pinging around inside her head. And he knew which one she'd decide on.

"That's definitely it. Squall suits you more."

He'd been wrong. "What?" It was part of what earned him the nickname in the first place: almost always working alone, but fierce as the animal it referenced when someone in his "pride," the number of which had been precious few, was threatened. He knew he'd been subconsciously behaving as a threatening lion since arriving in the town, which meant that only Cloud and Sora – and now Yuffie and Aerith – had had the courage to face him. So what was she seeing that made him "Squall?"

"You're unpredictable," she answered easily. "You look and act all threatening and everything, but you're not that bad underneath – or you're not angry that long, I'm guessing. Come on, am I right or not?"

"I…" She _was_ right. His temper was violent, but it tended to blow over quickly, just like the storms he'd been named for; one or two explosions and he was done. And squalls in the weather certainly looked horrible when they were building, as he knew he'd been since coming.

But still, he was who he was. "I'm Leon."

She just shook her head, starting to grin. "Nope, you'll always be Squall to me."

"…I'm not going to be able to change your mind, am I?"

And that grin just widened. "Not on your life."

They were a bit rocky, a bit unsteady – but they could both tell that their antagonistic days, at least towards each other, were over.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sora and Kairi filed through the crowd in the First District, laughing easily and browsing the stalls without buying anything but some sort of sugary confection that looked like taffy but was a lot easier to chew, pointing things out to each other and exclaiming over unusual finds with all the enthusiasm of their sixteen years. No one looked askance at them; Sora had become well-liked around the town in the month and a half since his arrival, for his cheerful demeanor and his willingness to help people out, though people couldn't understand why he'd attached himself to Cloud Strife. Well, said most of the gossips, that poor boy could use a good friend, so leave it be since it seems to be going well. Might improve him some, too. But since it was Sora's first Festival after all, and Cloud was never the social type, seeing him around with Kairi was in no way a surprise. Cid couldn't even claim he'd been corrupting his "daughter" since they were quite literally surrounded by people in just as high a spirit as they.

Of course, Cid didn't know about the dojo, and there was no way Kairi was telling him about _that_.

Both of them were still flying high on some sort of almost intoxicating euphoria that gave them even more energy and made them laugh more frequently as well, though they'd always been a pair to laugh. Many of the other people smiled to see them, so genuinely happy, and had no clue as to why, attributing it to the normal exuberance that the Competition and Festival always inspired in their age group. But the real reason was, of course, their secret; Sora wasn't even sure when he'd tell Cloud and Leon, feeling like this was too good to be true.

They'd sworn to each other in the dojo that they'd do _nothing_ to give it away and bring Cid's wrath down on them; that meant they couldn't even hold hands, as they'd seen other couples doing. Occasionally one of them would take the opportunity to grab the other's hand and drag them down the line of stalls to something else interesting they'd seen, but they always made themselves let go before anyone could get suspicious. But in reality, it wasn't that hard to keep apart; the Festival was giving them plenty to distract themselves with, and since it only happened once a year they were going to take advantage of it.

"Sora! Over here!" Kairi called, and Sora slipped through a small gaggle of older women who seemed to have already bought half the things being sold to join her. She was standing in front of a table with several cardboard boxes on it, looking absolutely delighted and with her hands in one of the boxes. As Sora pulled up next to her, he could see that each box contained one or two very small kittens, and a sign had been propped on the table reading "Free to good homes," while a man who appeared to be about fifty lounged behind it and watched them casually. Kairi was involved in petting a particularly demanding tabby that kept mewling at her and chasing her hand when she'd try to move it away. "Aren't they adorable?"

"Yeah, they are," he said as she picked up the tabby and cradled it – Sora couldn't tell if it was a girl or boy – in her arms. Normally his sense of "masculine pride" wouldn't have let him label anything as "adorable," but when Kairi said it it was somehow all right.

And he could certainly admit they were "cute."

Kairi sighed and reluctantly placed the kitten back in the box. "Sorry, little guy."

"Why don't you keep him… her?" he asked. It was clear she liked that cat, and if the man wasn't charging anything…

"I'd need to ask Cid first, and he's never let us have pets."

Abruptly, Sora made one of the spontaneous decisions that Cloud and Leon had come to dread and admire in equal measure, and lifted the tabby out of the box once more himself, arbitrarily assigning it a gender. "I'll take him then."

"_What?_"

He grinned. "My parents won't mind, and that way you know where he is if you can convince Cid to let you take him." He shrugged once, grinning at the stunned look on her face. "And if you can't, then if you ever visit us you can still see him."

"Eeeeeee!" she practically squealed with joy, throwing herself at him in a hug and making him stumble back to keep his balance.

"Careful! The cat! And Cid." He added that last part in a very, very low voice, one only she was able to hear. The _last_ thing he wanted was to get maimed for something he hadn't even really participated in.

Kairi backed up immediately, looking sheepish. "Sorry… Sorry, little guy," she said to the kitten, lifting it from Sora's arms. "Didn't mean to crush you." Her answer was another mewl as the kitten demanded ear scratches, right then, and she laughed as she complied, then turned to look at the man behind the table. "Is this one a girl or a boy?"

"Boy, Kairi. And the most energetic of the lot."

She grinned at Sora, teasingly. She honestly couldn't remember grinning so much before she met him, or as widely. "Perfect match for you, then."

"Awww, Kairi…" he pretended to whine, playing up his part in their little silliness. "You think a cat's the best I can do?"

"Yep!" she chirped with another grin, and turned and practically skipped off through the crowd.

"I'll show you!" he called after her, starting to follow her but letting her stay ahead by a little, grinning. He remembered to grab the kitten's box off the table before he left, though.

They were very lucky that their behavior wasn't all that different from before they'd "gotten together" – both of them were naturally friendly and energetic, and putting them together meant that one or both of them was almost always laughing or grinning. The townspeople had become accustomed to it, as some of their time together _had_ been spent in public, mostly in going to or coming from tutoring, and so they didn't draw anyone's suspicions with the way they were now.

But Sora had forgotten something very important.

Kairi suddenly started jumping, waving the arm without the kitten to be seen through the crowd of taller people surrounding her, and calling something out that Sora lost in the general buzz of conversation. By the time he reached her, though, he could see just who she'd been waving to – and nearly ran away.

Namine looked fine; it had, after all, been nearly a month since that scene in the library, and nearly a month since he had seen her at all as she had been deliberately avoiding him. He hadn't been spending much time with the group from the alley since then, because of Leon, Cloud, training, and all the little chores that seemed to crop up, and in a way he was glad for that – it meant he hadn't cut off her life, because he _knew_, thanks to Kairi, that she'd found him with the group sometimes and had gone straight back home, and he didn't want to be the cause of that.

But she was out here, at the Festival, and he suddenly remembered that he had told her he'd go around with her – just as friends, but he'd said he'd do it and he tried to never back out of a promise. But now he was out here with Kairi, and he'd forgotten about that promise in the crazy giddiness that had swept over him since Kairi had grabbed his hand – and it was very clear that they were already "going around" together, depriving Namine of both him and her best friend in one stroke.

This was going to be complicated.

"Oh, thanks Sora!" Kairi said as he finally came up next to them, setting the kitten in the box and taking the box from him. "See Nami, isn't he adorable? And he loves to be petted, try it!"

Kairi, too, had obviously forgotten of the promise Sora had made to Namine, and of course she was happy to see her as Namine was one of her best friends. But Sora knew as he finally met her eyes that Namine hadn't forgotten, that she still cared about him like that – and she was trying to fight it down and not show it. She gave him a half-hearted smile that didn't reach her eyes and then looked at the kitten, relaxing a little more when she was talking just to Kairi. "He's great, Kairi," she said, reaching in to pet the cat's head herself. "So you're really going to try and convince Cid to let you keep him?"

Kairi shrugged, still watching the cat. "The worst he can say is no. And if he does, he'll still be with Sora."

And Sora knew that _that_ had been the wrong thing to say; it made it sound like she was over at his apartment a lot – something that Namine knew Cid wouldn't approve of. He could see the thought clearly dawning in Namine's eyes, and he quickly decided to get himself out of there. Reaching for the kitten's box, he forced himself to act casual. "I'm gonna go put him in my apartment, all right?"

Kairi had realized about two seconds after she'd said it that her last statement, while true, was _not_ the best thing to say to one of your best friends who had a crush on your boyfriend (_Boyfriend!_ her mind shrieked in delight) and who had been turned down by him before he was your boyfriend because he, she realized, had a crush on you. Whoops. She and Namine definitely needed to talk. "You're right, he probably doesn't like having to stay in a box." Letting him take the box, Kairi forced herself to behave as if nothing at all had changed, instead of doing as she wanted to do and going with him.

Sora stayed just long enough to smile at both of them. "Wait for me here, okay? It should only take a few minutes." And Kairi saw Namine smile a little at that, though there was still a touch of sadness about the expression. Both girls nodded, and he took off, dodging easily through the crowds and vanishing quickly from their sight.

"…He's okay, right?" Namine asked quietly. "Yuffie hit him hard…"

"Aerith took care of him, he's okay." Kairi hesitated, suddenly feeling more than a little awkward, and finally just asked. "You haven't… seen Riku, have you?"

"No," the blonde replied, giving her a much more natural curious glance. Without Sora there she was pretty much her normal self. "Did something happen?"

"It… might have." Much as Kairi wasn't going to tell Namine about Sora and her yet – that would just be cruel – Namine was friends with all three of them and was guaranteed to notice something was up when Kairi stopped… well, constantly being with Riku. She wasn't sure yet just what she was going to do about him; he'd been her friend for so long, but he'd been so stupidly _possessive_… And learning that on some level he thought she _owed_ him something for being her friend had hurt, and she couldn't deny it. Why he thought that, she didn't know, but it was there and he couldn't take it back.

"What was it?"

"I… don't really know, but… Nami, he's a good person, right?"

She blinked with a little confusion. "Who, Riku?"

"Yeah."

"Well… He can be a little arrogant, but I think so."

Kairi shook her head. "It's like they say… Even good people can do bad things."

"…Kairi, what did he _do?_"

She just shook her head again. "It's really confusing… I promise I'll tell you when I figure it out, though."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Cloud and Aerith had jumped out of the way of the two running teenagers, though neither of them had realized just who they'd nearly trampled. Cloud had to chuckle at the sight, and Aerith was smiling as well, watching after them fondly.

"Even if she doesn't like him, they have a good friendship," she commented. He had, of course, told her about Sora's crush on Kairi – she didn't know about the deal Riku had made with Leon, though – and she was of the opinion that it was one of the most adorable things she could imagine, even though Sora's rival was her cousin. She and Riku got along perfectly well, of course, but they hadn't known each other well growing up, and by the time she'd moved in with him and her uncle he had a well-established social group and she was very busy, meaning they didn't have much time to spend together. Add in the fact that she was now with Cloud – if still unofficially – and that made their relationship just a tad awkward at times, though they cared about each other.

"From what he says, it sounds like they do." Kairi had never been one of the ones to treat him badly, but she'd been part of "that group," and Cloud was starting to wonder lately if he hadn't been unjustly lumping her in with the rest. What was it that Sora had said? Something about he didn't think Kairi would be horrible? Maybe the younger boy had been right, after all. "Come on, let's keep going."

The two of them were slowly meandering their way around the stalls, not really shopping or socializing, simply using the time to be together. Many of the people they saw smiled at Aerith, who was just as loved in Traverse as she'd been at home, but turned rather curious expressions at her companion once they figured out who it was. But the expressions were just a little different now than they had been, and he couldn't figure out why. They weren't doing anything "couple-y," not even holding hands, but seeing him in public seemed to be something that not many people were prepared for.

Aerith paused to examine a necklace that one of the vendors had on display, a simple silver chain with a pink stone set in a pendant. "Have you thought about it any more?"

"Thought about what?"

"What you're going to do when you finish your training," she clarified as she undid the clasp on the necklace, pulling it under her hair to fasten around her neck. It looked good on her, he decided. Pink was definitely her color. "You want to get away, but do you know where, yet?"

He shook his head. "Not yet… I've never been out of Traverse, I don't have any idea what other places are like."

"You know who you should talk to? Leon."

"Why not you? Or Sora?"

She smiled. "You already know where we've been. He's probably been other places than we have. Or even Cid, he's guaranteed to know more than us." The healer girl sighed and undid the catch once again, letting the necklace slide off and setting it carefully back on the table before starting to move away.

"Why don't you get it?" Cloud asked with some confusion.

"I can't afford it; I have other things to get today."

Cloud had to wonder just how much of Sora was rubbing off on him, because suddenly he found himself making one of those impetuous decisions that his friend was famous for and scooping up the necklace, other hand digging in his pocket for his money. He knew this would start the rumor mill going – in high gear, since it was him and Aerith, after all – but at the moment he didn't care. Dropping the money in the vendor's hand, he held the necklace out to Aerith, who was staring at him in confusion.

"Cloud, what…?"

"Take it, it's yours."

"But why?"

He shrugged. "You put up with me. Isn't that enough?" She began to smile again as she took the necklace and once more opened the clasp and put it on, not saying anything.

But then again, she didn't have to.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Here," the ninja said, pushing something in his direction.

Somehow, neither of them could entirely say how, hours had passed since Leon and Yuffie had climbed the ladder to the bell tower terrace. It was dusk now, and the chaos below them was just beginning to die down, as people settled down on whatever could be used as a seat (or in some cases, stood) to eat food purchased from the vendors. Traverse, with the exception of some of the younger generation, had the tendency to turn in early and shut down after dinner, another thing Leon had trouble with and the reason why not many people thought Cid was going overboard with his curfew for Yuffie and Kairi. The Festival was an exception, of course, but even that would end earlier than Leon was accustomed to, and some people were already starting to drift back inside.

Thanks to Aerith, though, neither of them was feeling tired. Without realizing that time was passing, they had talked for a long time – well, the ninja had grilled him on several topics, more precisely, and he answered or not as he chose. His weapon, the Academy, Hollow Bastion once again, she wanted to know it all, and gradually he could tell that she was just as frustrated with this town as he was and wanted out just as badly. He'd had his doubts, knowing of her penchant for making spur-of-the-moment decisions, but this was clearly something she'd been thinking about for a long time, and now she had an information source right at her fingertips. She certainly wasn't going to waste the opportunity. But she'd figured out she was hungry rather abruptly as her stomach growled at her, loudly, and she'd volunteered to slip down and grab them something to eat. He had no idea how she'd managed to climb the ladder with the two paper plates she carried, but he had to admit the sandwiches looked good.

"When were you last there?" he finally got a chance to ask as she dove into her food, eating quickly but neatly and not choking.

She took a moment to swallow before replying. "When I was nine. Cid took us back to visit their graves, and…" she shrugged. "We haven't been back since." It hadn't surprised her that Leon knew her general history already; absolutely everyone else did, after all, and she'd found out he'd been spending time with Cloud.

"That would be, what, eight years?"

"Almost nine, now. I turn eighteen in November." She cracked her knuckles as she set her plate down, and blinked as Leon – _No, Squall_ – dropped some money in her hand. "What's this for?"

"The food."

"Oh." She briefly wondered what in the hell was wrong with her as she'd started to consider refusing to take his money, but quickly dismissed the idea and pocketed it instead. "Thanks."

He simply nodded, working on his own sandwich, and there was another silence between them. They'd had several of them that afternoon, when she'd stopped pestering him and expected him to start asking her things instead, but he'd almost never taken the opportunity. He'd asked a few questions, nothing very serious, but he could have demanded a lot more than he was with all the grilling she was doing. Was he trying to respect her privacy, or did he just not care about knowing? And why in the hell did that second option make her unhappy?

Squall set his own plate down, brushing a few crumbs off his jacket, and finally she just had to know. "Why aren't you asking me anything? I'm being a complete pest and you're just letting me and you should be asking things too so I'm less of a pest."

He turned to look at her, and she noticed that his eyes were a clear blue, almost piercing, something that would certainly make people who didn't have the guts to talk to him shiver when he looked at them. And that scar certainly wouldn't help, directly between his eyes – though, for some reason, she liked it. It suited him, as did those eyes. And he wasn't watching her with a glare, as she knew he would most of the people in the world, but the look in his eyes was still perceptive – almost uncanny.

"I thought you wouldn't like being asked personal questions," he said at last.

_She_ nearly squirmed at that – after all, she'd been doing that to him all afternoon, someone who certainly couldn't like intrusive questions – but managed to just shrug. "I don't have to answer them if I don't want to. You haven't been answering all of mine." It was true; their silences had mostly sprung up when she'd asked a question and he simply hadn't responded, and she'd known she'd overstepped some line of his and had given him a chance to get her back. "And hell, after this, you've earned it."

"After smashing you in the head."

"Oh, get over that," she said with a groan. "It was a fight. You didn't kill me. I'm _fine_. Aerith wouldn't have left if I wasn't and you know it."

"But-"

"_No buts_," she demanded, pushing him in the shoulder, and amazingly he stopped arguing. "Why in the hell are you so hung up about that, anyway? I did the same thing to Sora, and I would've done the same thing to you if I'd had the chance."

For a moment she was worried that she'd overstepped that invisible line of his once more, as he didn't respond, but then she felt indignation boiling up inside of her. Seriously, it was _no big deal_. She was fine now, it was a fight, he should just _drop it_. He'd already apologized for it twice that afternoon, and this was just stupid overkill. And she wasn't some weakling, if he was thinking that; she'd been giving him a good run for his money before that happened.

"Squall, just get the fuck over it."

"It's Leon."

She ignored that. "Look, unless you want me to kick your ass off this tower, which I _will_ do, you'll drop it. I forgive you, _okay?_ Stop basking in self-inflicted misery."

"I'm not-"

"Yes you are," she interrupted, fed up. "It's nice and gallant and stupid. And if you even dare _think_ of me as weak I'm going to break your fingers."

He snorted just a bit at that. "You, Yuffie, are _not_ weak."

"Then why in the hell are you so hung up on this!"

He couldn't very well say because it was her – that made entirely no sense, even to him. Finally, he just shrugged. "I don't like hurting people who don't deserve it."

She just stared at him. "You're going into the _military_ and you don't like _hurting_ people? You're gonna be in a lotta trouble, then. Or die really quick. Or both."

"Not like that." He shook his head. "The military – at least at Hollow Bastion – protects people. Sometimes you have to fight, to save something or someone. But this was just an exercise where what I did wasn't necessary."

Yuffie had no idea what to say to that. After all, the entire point of the Competition was to test the skills the young fighters had at their disposal, in dangerous situations – which was why they always used live weapons. Having a practice weapon meant it wasn't real, that it was safe. The Competition was as much about teaching you to watch your back as it was a social gathering. "Squall."

"Leon."

"_Squall_," she insisted, slowly and firmly, "you ended the fight. You beat me. Yeah, I didn't like it, and yeah, it hurt. But if I ever get in a situation like that, whoever I'm fighting won't go easy on me, so why should you have done that today? It's why Aerith was there, because people _do_ get hurt every year. Hell, Cloud broke my leg last year, and I haven't killed him for it."

"But he didn't give you-"

"SQUALL!" she shouted, unaware that the sound carried down to the ground and made a few people look around, unable to tell where it had come from. She wouldn't have cared even if she did know; she merely grabbed the collar of his jacket in both hands and yanked him to face her, much to his clear shock. "What in the fuck do I have to do to get you to _stop apologizing?_"

And with him looking at her like that, expression unguarded for the first time she could ever remember, she felt… Well, she didn't know what she felt. It was a feeling of surging in her stomach, of anticipation almost, and shock, and she felt her eyes widen slightly as it registered in her head, but she didn't move and neither did he. Both of them sat there for a long few moments while thoughts she couldn't even begin to understand raced through her mind.

And finally she let go, pushing him back a little at the same time, shaking her head to clear it. "You're impossible," she stated to cover up the confusion she was feeling. "You didn't mean to, you apologized, I said it was all right. End of story." She stood, dusting off her knees and picking up her plate, which she crumpled into a little ball. "There's more important things than dwelling on something stupid like that."

Before he could make any reply to that, Yuffie was over the side of the terrace and down the ladder, getting away quickly thanks to her training, and kicking herself for running away – which was exactly what she was doing, and she knew it.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Leon had no idea what had passed between them – something definitely had, but he could no more have explained it than he could have turned the sky purple. It was confusing, it was strange, it was nothing that had ever happened to him before, and he didn't know if it was dangerous or not. He rather thought not, but it was still unknown, and he'd been trained to at least always keep an eye on the unknown. Always being on guard had kept him from being hurt before this, both in fighting and in regular life, but this didn't feel like something he'd necessarily _need_ to guard against – but he had no clue what it was. And he didn't like not knowing something important.

He stayed atop the bell tower until most of the crowd had disappeared, which was no less than half an hour after the ninja left. He'd been right; even for something like this, Traverse turned in early. In the Bastion, this would've been going on until three in the morning, or later.

The Bastion… that was where he belonged. That was where _Yuffie_ belonged, he could see now, or at least a place she _could_ belong. She hadn't been meant to be raised outside it, she needed a place with more life in it, more variety, just… more of everything. Hell, get her over there and she might possibly be _friendly_, which was a baffling thought. But somehow he could just picture her in the craziness that was the Bastion, finally finding outlets for all that energy, not having the feeling of being tied to this town with chains… Yeah, somewhere where she could live as she wanted, where she couldn't feel the wholehearted disapproval of the people around her everywhere she went, and he could easily see her smiling and laughing. Hanging out.

Maybe even dating, much as she swore against it.

In the end, Leon gave up trying to figure it out for the time being – somehow he could tell it was only going to let itself be figured out with both of them. Putting all thought of it from his mind, he picked up the gunblade and climbed down the ladder himself, then jumped off the small terrace next to the Gizmo Shop that the ladder led to, only a single story high, landing a bit awkwardly but without twisting anything.

It was only when he was straightening up that he realized he wasn't alone.

Riku was there, and clearly had been for awhile; he was just as startled to find Leon jumping off the buildings as Leon was to see him, though Leon didn't let it show. There was so much contradictory information about this boy that he'd been finding it impossible to tell what was true and what was not; sometimes it seemed like it was everything or nothing. Leon belatedly remembered that he'd just jumped into the side street that led to Riku's front door, one of the only streets in the district that hadn't been taken over by the tents, as he realized that Riku had cleaned himself up and changed since the fights. He looked… "down" wasn't the best way to describe it, it was more like despair was trying to eat him away from the inside.

And Leon had absolutely no clue what to do about that.

Since agreeing with Riku's little scheme, he had barely seen the boy; the money he'd agreed to pay Leon had come in the mail every week, and Leon had been using it to supplement his grandfather's pension to pay for their rent, bills, and food. _Now_ he was starting to regret ever agreeing to do this, for money at least; they could've gotten by fine without it, and had been getting along before that deal, but it had been nice not to be living on meals-from-a-box since then.

Well, screw cooking, he wasn't that good at it anyway. A quick glance around to make sure that no one was there to overhear them, and he straightened up to face Riku directly. "Deal's off."

"…What?" It was a mark of just how unlike himself Riku was that he didn't yell that – or demand to know why.

"The deal. Is off," he repeated, slowly, trying to hammer the point home. "I don't want your money anymore, and I'm not going to help you rope some girl into going out with you by chasing another one who doesn't want to go out at all."

"But… you can't do that!" Riku was finally coming back to life, even if that life was starting to panic. "She told me to leave her alone because I said something incredibly stupid and I have to get her to forgive me!"

Leon just shook his head, starting to turn away. "That's your problem, not mine." And it left things open for Sora, the one he'd support if this farce was made public.

"Leon!"

_It's Squall_, his mind said, completely irrationally, as he turned to look at the silver-haired boy again. "What?"

"You've gotta help me out here, I'm desperate-"

_As if that wasn't obvious_, he thought.

"-I'll pay you double if you get Yuffie to convince Kairi to give me another chance."

His eyes narrowed instantaneously, straight to the danger point, in the expression that he _knew_ had made people shake in their shoes in the past. "No."

"Triple, then."

"_No_." Riku was apparently as dense as he was desperate, and Leon turned away once again. "I don't want to play this game of yours anymore. Leave me alone, or I swear I'm going to break both your legs."

He could do it, and Riku knew that, but the logic centers of his brain were temporarily on the blink. In one semi-suicidal last-ditch effort, the seventeen-year-old had lunged forward and shoved a significant amount of money, probably what he'd been planning on spending at the Festival, into Leon's gloved hand, and then took off around the corner at a run that Leon was certain would send him flying into someone in short order.

The gunblade wielder looked down at the money in his hand – about ninety or so, not quite double their original fifty, and certainly not the triple Riku had offered, but still more than he'd been getting out of this before. But whereas before he was indifferent to the money, considering it a business venture of sorts, now even the sight of it made him feel a little sick.

What Riku wanted him to do – what Riku had been paying him to do so far – was nothing short of manipulation, and he'd gone along with it because he thought he couldn't afford not to. In a way it had been good that he hadn't had prolonged contact with the ninja before this, since that made it so no one got hurt. But now that they actually might be on the way to being friends, he knew very well that if she ever found out about the money, she would be hurt beyond anything he could imagine and she'd want nothing to do with him – or even want to kill him. And he didn't want to hurt her; after all, he'd said "_I don't like hurting people who don't deserve it_."

And she didn't deserve it. Not like this.

Having no other idea of what to do with the money, Leon stuffed it in a pocket and started to walk back to his apartment. He wasn't going to spend it – he had to find some way to return it to Riku, to get it through the boy's head that the deal was done. Finished. Broken beyond all repair.

Riku was used to getting his way. Leon was too stubborn _not_ to.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AUTHOR'S NOTES II: And here's the answer to the question "Just what is Riku going to do?" He's going to try to get her back, of course. Though I honestly have no idea what he'll do; he hasn't told me yet. All I know is Namine's gonna figure out about Kairi and Sora pretty soon, and with his help. Also Leon's story is finally made public, which I hope gives some better explanation for some stuff that's been mentioned in other chapters (like his habit of disappearing for days at a time). It's really kind of boring if you think about it; something that could happen to anyone. Doesn't mean he has to like it, though.

And we have some Squffieness, at last! Mild, to be sure, but it _has_ started, at long last. And now it's spawning a contest of wills between Riku and Squall... _That_ could be disasterous... Stay tuned to see!


	9. Confrontations

DISCLAIMER: .:drums fingers:. Still waiting... Still waiting... (still no own, damnit.)

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry about the delay, folks! Finals hit along with ice storms and roommate issues and moving and other things, so it's been a little longer than normal since an update, but I hope this chapter makes up for it. One of the problems was the chapter apparently didn't _want_ to get written; I had things planned for it that just wouldn't come out. It was one of those situations where the story was smarter than the author, and eventually I gave up on trying to force it into shape and just let it flow. So basically this entire chapter is nowhere near what I pictured, but it's still very crucial as lots of pertinent things happen. I didn't expect them to happen so early, but it makes sense. Just read and you'll see :)

My chapters just keep getting more and more monstrous, don't they? I honestly don't think I'm gonna have any more "short" chapters on this story. They just don't want to happen! This one isn't quite as long as the last one, but it only falls short by a couple hundred words. And remember, Squall shall be refered to as "Squall" if it's from Yuffie's POV, but if it's anyone else it shall be "Leon." Just to clear up confusion.

As always, review replies and fun facts are up on my livejournal, www . livejournal . com / users / tairako (copy, paste, delete spaces). So long, see ya later!

(Soundtrack: "Vertigo" by U2/"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by Santa Esmeralda my "Leon songs" for this story until the dragging out of the apartment, followed by "Stay With You" by Mai Hoshimura.)

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

In the days after the Competition and the Festival, things settled down into pretty much the same pattern they'd been in before – but with a few notable exceptions. Already acknowledged as one of the best around, the sword class now regarded Cloud with something almost like awe after his fight with Leon, even with the fact that he'd lost. Riku was more closed in than usual, but made no mention of his and Sora's fight that day. Sora and Kairi now spent most of the morning together after his private lesson with Cloud and the masters, and only half their time (or less) was spent in tutoring. Kairi herself spent less time with Riku and their group than she had before. Leon seemed to somehow relax a little, and began unbending enough to even _smile_ once in awhile. Cloud left his apartment more and more often, and didn't hide out in the unpopulated areas of the town quite so much when he was out. Aerith began visiting the three young men on her breaks and getting to know all of them a little better. And even Yuffie seemed to calm down somewhat, or at least she wasn't yelling at absolutely everyone she saw now, though she didn't seem to be any more social than before.

All in all, they were all small changes, ones that mostly concerned only their group and went unnoticed by the populace at large. But the fact that they actually _had_ a group now… Well, that wasn't really something they'd acknowledged before, but now it was starting to seem more natural. At the moment, the group was still only the three guys, but they could feel that Aerith was slowly coming to be part of it as well – as much as she could with the time she had to work, that is. And Sora was starting to wonder if maybe – just maybe – Kairi could be part as well; after telling Riku to leave her alone, she hadn't been spending as much time with Kyo, Yusaru, and the girls. She knew she couldn't avoid Riku forever, but his comments still hurt.

"Kairi, you've gotta talk to him and you know it," Namine said a few days later, as the two girls were relaxing in her room. Kairi had finally told her what had happened – with the exception of Sora liking her and getting together with him – and Namine had been just as stunned as she was to hear Riku's words. But she was better able to be the voice of reason, since she wasn't directly involved in this. "He's really sorry about saying those things; we can all tell. He just wants to talk to you."

"I know," she sighed, tossing aside the magazine she'd been leafing through. "And he's one of my best friends, but… It's all true, you know? In some way he thinks I owe him because he's been my friend. And what if I _did_ get together with him, what then? What would I owe him then? What would he just try and _take_?" A small shiver ran up her spine at that idea, and she quickly squashed it from her head. No matter how crazy Riku got, he would never do that. "I just …I need a little more time."

Namine sighed. "You've got three days… I don't like my friends fighting," she responded quietly to Kairi's silent question. "Even if things can't get back to the way they were, I don't like seeing him always kicking himself and you agonizing about what to say to him. At least then it'll be done."

"Do we even _want_ things to go back to the way they were?" Kairi asked quietly, rhetorically. Namine, not knowing what to say to that, simply picked up a magazine and began to flip through it again.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Dinner at the Highwind residence had been quieter since the Competition, and that fact wasn't lost on Cid. In the past, there had usually been at least one minor spat between Yuffie and Kairi with every meal; the girls just couldn't seem to leave each other alone. But in the few days since then, there'd been only one. In fact, they'd been tapering off since even before the Competition, and he hadn't had to actually yell in awhile. Growl, yes; yell, no. They weren't getting along much better, but they weren't at each others' throats all the time now.

Cid was a perceptive man, but he couldn't quite tell what these changes were about. It was almost as if they were unconsciously striving to be civilized towards each other, and it was working; they were polite, if a little stiff. Yuffie was even doing her chores with less complaining. He wasn't about to take it for granted, but when lots of little things added up into one big thing he couldn't see, there was something off.

Even when he'd yelled at Yuffie that night for running off with a concussion, she'd just stood there and taken it. Now he knew her habits better than anyone, knew that she knew what she'd done was dumb, but he'd expected _some_ form of retaliation or rebuttal, and hadn't gotten any. That, more than anything really, was bugging him; it just wasn't like his foster daughter to not get someone back. Clearly something was happening – and he was going to find out what.

Since Kairi did the cooking, he and Yuffie washed the dishes, and he knew that would be his best opportunity. Once the ninja was buried in soapsuds up to her elbows, scrubbing a particularly stubborn pan and unable to get away, he simply plunged into it to take her off-guard. "So what th'hell is up with you?"

It worked; Yuffie clearly wasn't expecting to be grilled on anything, judging by the look she gave him: completely baffled. "What?"

"You've been damn close to _obedient_ lately, an' that ain't the Yuffie I know by a long shot." Cid flicked the toothpick he always had on hand, still unable to kick the physical habits of a near lifetime of smoking despite not having cigarettes. "You wanna volunteer what's goin' on or do I have t'pry it outta you with a crowbar?"

Yuffie made a face at him but didn't say anything; neither did he. He was more patient than her when he was required to be, and he was willing to wait as long as it took for her to talk about this. It took surprisingly less time than he'd expected – but when Yuffie finally groaned in defeat and let the pan slip back in the water, he wasn't quite prepared for what came out.

"Look… You remember that fight we had? About me leaving?"

"Yeah…" he replied cautiously. This was new.

"What if I told you I know where I wanna go?"

Cid paused for a moment, considering; he still didn't want Yuffie to leave, but after her birthday he couldn't stop her – and he knew how miserable she was here. "I'd have t'say it'd depend on where that place was," he finally replied.

"All right, what if I said I wanted to go back home?"

He just stared. "To th'Bastion?"

"Yeah."

"That place has nothin' but bad memories-"

"Maybe for _you_, Cid, but not for me! I've got a lot more bad memories about _this_ place than I ever did about there." She sighed, knowing she wasn't making much sense, but kept going, honestly trying to make him understand. "I barely remember it, Cid. I mean, yeah, it's where Dad and Takara and Shera and Charles died, but I was _eight_. It's been more than half my life since then. And if I stay here I'm gonna end up killing something," she said flatly, in a tone that brooked no arguments. "Or getting arrested. Or something."

Cid forced himself to remain silent for a few moments, gathering himself together so he wouldn't start yelling, and fortunately it worked. "What would y'do over there, though? How would you live?" He knew it as well as she did – she was lacking in generally all of the skills that would enable her to find a job, though maybe she would get lucky. Or maybe one of their old friends would recognize her and help her out. But it was nothing to be counted on.

Amazingly, she turned a little red at his question and lowered her eyes from his a little. "Well… you know how I'm only really good at fighting."

"Yeah…"

"See… I'm thinking about trying to get into the Academy."

_That_ was something he had never, ever expected to hear. "What?" he asked blankly.

"I know it doesn't sound like something I'd like, with the rules and all," she hurriedly added, and a part of his mind had to admit that it was funny to see the normally unflappable Yuffie flustered. "And all the discipline and everything. But it's not like you don't get _any_ freedom there, and I can get better training and be around people who think like me and not like these small-minded hicks we live with."

"They're not small-minded hicks."

She ignored that. "Plus if it doesn't work out and I have to leave, I'll still get more respect as someone who went there at all so I'll be more likely to get a job."

He had to sit down. Making his way over to the table, he pulled out one of the chairs and sank into it, trying to sort out the sudden barrage of new ideas that had been thrown at him. She was right; at first, the Academy _didn't_ sound like something she'd like. They didn't tolerate slacking, nor much insubordination; he'd gotten in trouble enough times for it himself. But the more he thought about it, the more he had to admit that maybe – just maybe – it would work out better than he was thinking; certainly Yuffie had never shirked on her practicing, nor on her academic work. It was mostly only her social skills that were lacking, and social skills weren't really _necessary_ for the Academy. And maybe even they would improve.

Still… "Where th'hell'd you _learn_ all that?" He knew he'd never told her and Kairi much about the place where he'd met both his wife and, by extension, their parents, seeing as early on the thoughts were still too raw, and by the time they weren't neither of the girls seemed interested.

She shrugged, and he couldn't tell if it was his imagination that the shrug looked a little uncomfortable. "I've been talking to people."

"What people?"

"Does it matter?" she shot back, starting to scrape the soapsuds off her arms. "I've thought about this, and I know this is what I wanna do."

"You know it costs money, right?"

"We still have Dad's trust, that's gotta be more than enough to pay."

"…You're sure, aren't you." It wasn't a question.

She just nodded. "Yeah."

There was another pause, this one lasting longer than any of the others. Finally, Cid levered himself out of his chair, moving over to a cabinet above the stove and opening it. "I'll have t'think on it."

"Fine. And we threw your 'hidden' pack away, Cid."

He cursed under his breath as he pushed the cabinet door shut and walked out of the room, leaving Yuffie to tackle the rest of the dishes.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Leon flipped through the mail as he walked in the door of his apartment, shaking his head minutely at the multitude of bills. When he reached the official-looking envelope containing his grandfather's pension check, he pulled it out of the stack, tossing the rest of the envelopes on the table near the front door for him to take care of later and shutting the door behind him.

"That you, Squall?" his grandfather called from the room that had been set up with his bed and all the medical equipment he needed.

"Yeah, it's me," he called back, pulling off his jacket and hanging it in the small coat closet. "Do you need anything?"

"Get in here, will ya?"

He shook his head again and headed for the room, trying to comb out his hair a little with his fingers. It had gotten tangled and annoying from a bout against both Cloud and Sora, which he had lost. The two of them made a good team and were learning to work off each other's strengths and weaknesses, but that meant he was now getting hurt more than he had since moving to Traverse. Wondering for the billionth time just why he didn't cut his hair to get it out of his face, he yet again decided to set it aside for a later time as he entered his grandfather's room. "What is it?"

The room was blankly anonymous, as was much of the apartment. There were three photographs up on the walls, not doing much to break up that particularly bleak shade of white that uncomfortably reminded him of a hospital. A photo of his parents sat in its frame on the bedside table, next to the reading lamp, and Leon turned away from their smiling faces as he always did. An oxygen tank was set in the corner in case of emergencies, and two more machines that Leon knew how to operate in theory but had no clue what they really did were pushed to the side. An IV drip was set up next to the bed, its bag almost empty, and Beck Leonheart was sitting upright against at least two pillows and frowning out the window across the room.

Beck had much the same problem as his grandson: he didn't want to be there. The difference was, Leon could get out of the apartment. Of course, that meant he was in more contact with people, but Beck saw that as a benefit. The frown faded as he turned to face his grandson in the doorway. "You look terrible." He wasn't one to mince words.

"I know. What do you need?"

"When're you gonna get a haircut?"

Leon managed to stop himself from groaning aloud. "I don't know. Do you need more water?"

"Listen, I wanna know when we can get back home."

This time he couldn't stop himself, but he did manage to muffle it for the most part. Dragging a hand down his face at yet another repetition of this same conversation, Leon came fully in the room and sat in the chair next to his grandfather's bed. "When they say you can, Granddad," he repeated for what felt like – and probably was – the hundredth time. "We're going back for another checkup in a week."

"Damn the checkups, I mean for real and ya know it."

Their family genetics had a very high sense of irony. Leon's father, Laguna, had been the most cheerful and enthusiastic person imaginable, despite the fact he had a workaholic, pessimistic soldier for a father. Leon had inherited most of his grandfather's personality and almost none of his father's, though fortunately it was tempered somewhat by his mother's good common sense.

"When they say you can," he repeated, knowing Beck wouldn't be any happier with that than he had in the past. Unfortunately, it was the only answer he had to give.

His grandfather just gave him that sharp look that plainly meant _I'm going to ignore that you just said that_, and looked back to the window. He was in one of his moods today, then. Leon sighed and stood, picking up the glass by his grandfather's right hand. "I'll get you some more water."

They had a strange sort of familial bond. Beck hated being dependent on anyone, much as Leon knew he himself would be, even his last living relative. Some days were better than others, but no matter how strong his personality remained, he was still too weak to be out of bed for more than a few minutes, which was only doubling his frustration. Leon couldn't blame his grandfather, and certainly wasn't going to leave him on his own, but those moods weren't doing him any good either and just made him more eager to get home as well.

He left the refilled glass with his grandfather and gathered the bills he'd scattered over the small table, taking them and the pension check back to the room he slept in. He couldn't call it "his," but it was a place to pass out and work. That room had even less personality than his grandfather's and nothing on the walls save a few papers from the Academy he hung onto until he could get back there. The desk was bare but for some paper and a couple of pens, and as he sat he crumpled the top paper which was covered in numbers and sums, tossing it over his shoulder in the direction of the trash can. Time to pay the bills.

It was always a stretch trying to make one check large enough to pay for two people to live, though the fact that Traverse was a cheaper place than the Bastion helped. Leon had had way too much practice in creative accounting over the past year. He wasn't going to deny it, the money from Riku had helped, but he was _not_ going to accept that anymore. He'd rather respect himself.

But as he was flipping through the bills once again, trying to figure out which was the most urgent, he suddenly stopped as he saw a handwritten address that he could have sworn wasn't there when he went through them the first time. He knew that writing well, too well: Riku. If this was what he thought it was…

Rather than rip the envelope open, he simply felt it. It was the money, all right – and more than the fifty he'd originally been getting, which only made him groan. Apparently Riku hadn't understood what he meant when he'd said the deal was off – either that or he was a complete moron. He'd already dropped the money he'd been shoved the day of the Competition in the mail back to him, but this was something new, and he was going to get rid of it. Finding a red pen in one of the drawers, Leon scrawled _Return to sender_ over his own address, then set the envelope aside to take care of after the bills.

He'd gotten as far as the third set of figures before an unfamiliar noise startled him from his concentration. It stopped, and then started again, louder: the sound of somebody knocking on the door, a sound he hadn't heard in so long he could barely remember what it was.

"Squall! Get the damn door!" his grandfather yelled

"All right already!" he yelled back, standing and heading for the front door. They quite literally hadn't had a visitor in months, not since they'd moved in and an overly cheerful woman in her mid-fifties had tried to "welcome them to the town" and then scurried away as fast as she could after meeting Leon. Come to think of it, she was probably the source of all the rumors that scared people into leaving him alone. Maybe he should thank her some day. But who would be here _now_?

Leon wasn't at all prepared for the sight on the other side of the door: short black hair, large brown eyes, small body. Yuffie peered up at him, plainly waiting for him to make some form of movement or statement.

When he didn't, she crossed her arms and gave him a look that said, in her opinion, he was being an idiot. "You're not gonna invite me in?"

"Sorry," he said automatically, backing out of the doorway without really thinking about it. She came in, glancing around her curiously, and he shut the door behind her. "How did you know I lived here?"

She shrugged, spinning to face him on the ball of her foot and clasping her hands behind her back. "I saw you coming back here one day when I was checking on Master Carran's place. No big deal."

They remained where they were, watching each other, Yuffie waiting for him to say something and Leon still trying to comprehend the fact that she was standing in his apartment. Finally he managed to give himself a little mental shake to clear his head, remembering his (somewhat out of practice) manners. "Would you like something to drink, or…"

"Got any soda?"

"No, just-"

"Who is it!" Beck shouted from his room.

Squall groaned again, very lowly, and looked at Yuffie. "One moment." Turning, he called down the hall in a voice more exasperated – and more alive – than she'd ever heard him use. "It's not for you, Granddad!"

"I'm old and I'm bored! Who is it!"

Yuffie clapped a hand over her mouth, managing – barely – to muffle her laughter. This guy sounded like _fun_.

"It's a-" Squall caught himself, glancing back at her, then finally looking back towards the direction the voice was coming in. "Friend of mine," he finished, the word sounding slightly odd coming from him. "We're going to- Yuffie!" he practically hissed, grabbing for her wrist but missing.

The ninja had slipped by him easily and was trotting down the hall in the direction of the voice, intent on meeting this cranky old man, and Squall had no choice but to follow if he was going to try and stop her. By the time he'd caught up with her, though, she was turning in the door, so there was no way of getting her out of there before his grandfather got going.

Pessimist he may have been, but Beck was a talker when he wanted to be, unlike his grandson. And he hadn't had anyone to talk to in a long time, usually storing up his chatter for their visits back to the Bastion and annoying his doctors. But here was someone fresh and new, and _she_ wasn't getting away – she was _seeking him out. She_ wouldn't just roll her eyes and walk away, like his grandson; she actually _wanted to talk._

And talk she would. "So who the hell are you?"

Leon groaned silently and stood in the door to the room, watching the floor and ready to get Yuffie out of there at a moment's notice. He could tell Yuffie was suppressing a grin as she answered, "Yuffie Kisaragi, sir," and he was very glad she'd remembered the "sir."

Beck's eyes lit. "Kisaragi? Not related to old Kado, are you?"

Yuffie blinked in surprise. "He was my grandfather."

The old soldier let out a barking laugh which quickly turned into a cough, and Leon grabbed Yuffie's wrist to prevent her from going to help him as the old man reached for his water glass and quickly downed some of it. The coughs subsided, and he continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "Knew him in the platoon, him and all his fancy moves an' everything. Heard he shipped his kid off to some fancy school for ninja, what was his name, Goda, Yoda-"

"Godo," she supplied. "And yep, he was my father."

"Sooo, we got another Bastionite in this town." Beck's eyes were positively sparking with cynical mirth as he jerked a thumb at his grandson, who had one hand pressed over his face and was carefully not looking at his grandfather. "If what this one said was true, there wouldn't be any right-thinkin' people in this whole place."

"He's not that far off," and she couldn't resist adding with a wicked grin, "Sometimes he isn't too 'right-thinking' himself."

Leon groaned as Beck laughed again. "You've got spunk! You gonna kick him into shape for me until I can catch him?"

Yuffie bit her lip to suppress a laugh. "Don't worry, he can't get away from me."

"Not lettin' him out of your sight, are you?"

"More like not giving him a chance."

"So when're you and he gonna get down to givin' me great-grandchildren?"

Leon didn't even stop to think – he simply grabbed Yuffie by the waist, that being the most accessible part of her at the moment, and hauled her out of the room as she clapped both hands tight over her mouth and nearly had convulsions trying to hold her laughter in. Somehow he managed to shove his grandfather's door shut and get the ninja down to his own room, where she promptly collapsed on his bed, laughing her head off as he closed his own door.

"Your… he…!" she finally managed to gasp out, one hand moving down to hold her side. And all it took was one look at him to set her off again. "Your… face!"

Leon knew exactly what she was talking about; he could, unfortunately, feel exactly _what_ the effects of his grandfather's not at all tactful questioning had been, and he sank into the chair at his desk, putting his head in one hand and trying to force the red out of his face by sheer willpower. Fortunately, it took so long for Yuffie to calm down that he was mostly back to normal by the time she could sit up, and, except for one muffled snort, there was no more reaction to his looks.

"I'm sorry, but that…" And she giggled again, but managed to squash it quickly.

"He's… yeah," Leon followed up lamely, not having any idea how to explain Beck to an outsider. "Once he has an idea, he won't let it go."

A grin split Yuffie's face, though it had never really diminished in the first place. "So if I ever come back here he's liable to ask again?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

A small part – a _very_ small part – of Yuffie's mind had to admit that the idea wasn't as repellent as it could have been. After all, she got along reasonably well – okay, pretty damn well – with Squall. And if she was ever asked, though only then, she wouldn't fail to admit that he definitely looked good, especially with that thin white t-shirt showing off his muscles and those black pants and those eyes and that hair and even the scar- Yeah, he looked good. She'd admitted it from early on, and she was frankly surprised that at least some of the young women in the town weren't throwing themselves at his feet, but he still had that intimidation thing down to an art so he was probably scaring them off as soon as they'd thought of the idea. But looks weren't important to her, and she didn't have one damn romantic bone in her entire body, so his grandfather's dreams of seeing little Squalls running around would have to be accomplished with someone else. She couldn't help one last snicker at the thought – and somehow completely missed the little voice in the back of her mind that quietly asked her if she didn't think, on some level, that it would be fun.

"So does he do that with _every_ strange girl that knocks on your door?" she asked, still grinning.

"I wouldn't know," he replied truthfully. "You're the first to do that."

Oddly enough, she found that comforting. She smiled cheerfully at his still slightly red face. "Guess we'll have to drag Aerith here and see what happens."

"She'd probably laugh less than you," he commented, though it wasn't derogatory. He took a deep breath, pushing his hair out of his eyes, pretty much back to normal. "So why _did_ you come over?"

Yuffie made one last solid effort to squash her laughter and succeeded at last, folding her legs into a tailor's seat and leaning her elbows on her knees. "You remember how I was asking all those questions about the Academy?"

"Yeah?"

"Last night I told Cid I wanted to go there." Squall just watched her with a slightly blank look, and she knew he was having the same reaction that Cid had initially, doubting whether it would be the right place for her. "You've seen me fight, I've got the discipline when I need to. And I may argue over orders, but only stupid ones, and from what you've said they don't give stupid orders there."

"Well, no…" he was forced to admit.

"So I want to at least try it." She shrugged, no trace of laughter now, just honesty. "If I don't make it all the way through, then I don't make it. But being a ninja's the only thing I'm good at, so I might as well go for it as much as I can."

"You've been planning this for awhile, haven't you?" he asked, turning the chair to face her at last – and only then remembering that Riku's envelope, with the money in it, was still sitting out on his desk. He was able to keep the very brief panic that rose in him from showing on the outside, and quickly reminded himself that there was absolutely nothing about that envelope to indicate that the contents were for that stupid deal and just _what_ that deal was. Also, she'd have to get awfully close to realize who it was from, his own body was currently hiding it from view, and there were several other envelopes as well. Still, he didn't want her to see it at all if it could be helped.

Yuffie continued without noticing the sudden deviation of his train of thought. "A little, yeah. I haven't been happy here in a long time, and I always wanted to get out, but I didn't know how to do it until I talked to you. Thanks, by the way."

He waved off the thanks as unnecessary, but was still watching her closely with that extremely blue gaze that she was starting to find just a bit overwhelming. Cloud and Sora both had blue eyes as well, she knew, but Squall's were intense on a whole other level and he had that particular way of looking at you as if he was looking right through you, as if he could read all your secrets. It nearly made her shiver. "You've never talked about this with Aerith? Or even with Cid? Why me all of a sudden?"

She shrugged, managing not to squirm under that gaze. Why was he watching her that closely? "Aerith's my best friend, but she's not a fighter. And she's one of those people who can be happy wherever she goes, because she loves people and she loves helping people. Hell, if she wasn't like that we wouldn't be friends," Yuffie admitted, somewhat ironically. "I got injured in training one day and she took care of me, and after that she just kept pestering me, in the nicest way possible, until I broke down and talked to her. Typical Aerith." She had to smile at the memory – it had been mildly annoying at the time, but nowadays it always made her laugh. "And I don't see her much now because of her work and then her and Cloud – yeah, that's not a secret anymore," she said with a wide grin, correctly interpreting the look of surprise on Squall's face. "He bought her a necklace at the Festival and gave it to her in public, that kind of sealed it all. He's got good taste, I'll give him that, it _is_ really pretty."

Yet another surprise. "You actually like jewelry?"

Another shrug from her. "Not on a regular basis, but for special things, why not?" He'd have to think about that; from what people had said, and what he'd seen for himself, he'd decided she'd sworn off all things "girly" until time ended. She stifled another laugh at the mild look of surprise on his face. "Don't get me wrong. I hate makeup and stuff, and most dressy clothes; they're really stupid and uncomfortable and make me feel like some doll or something. And most jewelry is really tacky, but not all of it is, and if it's supposed to mean something and it makes her happy to get it then who am I to say anything against it?"

"You have a point," Leon admitted, still trying to process the – rather unlikely – image of Yuffie "dressed up." It just didn't _work_; she was his little ninja, she had to be able to run and jump and turn flips, all of which would be severely hindered in a dress or skirt.

And then he caught himself. _His_ little ninja? The hell?

Fortunately she couldn't read his mind, which was just really confused anyway. "Anyway, she likes him and apparently he likes her, and I haven't talked to him in years but he's not as bad as some. And he makes her happy. So that's them. And I know she's been talking to you, too; she says she's even seen you _smile_, hard as that is to believe."

He blinked. "I smile." It was way, way too easy for her to take him by surprise.

"I've never seen it," she retorted. "One day I may just… I don't know… tickle you ridiculously until you do."

He frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. "No, you won't."

She grinned, that grin with a hint of mischief. "Big bad Lion afraid of the little ninja?"

"No, you're just not gonna do that."

"We'll see."

"No, we won't." And because he knew that she would keep thinking about it (and thus plotting) if he left it alone, Leon tried to steer the conversation back on its original track. "So what about Cid? From what I've heard, you two get along."

She took the bait, though he couldn't tell if she was just letting him off the hook for now or honestly sidetracked. "Cid's great, but he's… Well, you should know, you don't tell your grandfather everything." Leon nodded, not wanting to interrupt. "Cid's a lot of fun and really smart, but he's my guardian, y'know? My father in a lot of ways, and you know people our age don't tell the people in charge of them much. Hell, he probably knows more about me than most of the other parents do their kids, and I don't know if that's because he's not my real father or if it's because he's Cid or what. But he still freaks out about some things."

"Like you wanting to go to the Academy?" he guessed. She hadn't, after all, yet said what Cid's reaction to that had been – and from a man so protective he wouldn't let his charges date (well, wouldn't let one of them date and counted on the antisocial tendencies of the other to keep her safe), it was a pretty secure bet that he wouldn't be too thrilled about losing one of them.

"Bingo," she said, a little dryly, and made a face as she settled her head in her hands with her elbows still on her knees in what seemed to be a posture she liked. "I didn't bring up the topic of me leaving in such a great way the first time, and I guess he just honestly didn't realize that I'd _want_ to. And when I said I wanted to go back to the Bastion…" Yuffie trailed off, shaking her head and rolling her eyes, and managed to catch sight of one of the papers tacked up on his wall. She uncurled from her position and crawled over the bed to scan it, and the others like it, while she continued talking. "It wasn't even the Academy, it was the Bastion. He's got a lot of bad memories there and he doesn't ever seem to want to _face_ them, so that's why we haven't been back in so long. I mean, he lost his wife and his kid and their best friends all in one night, it's not like he just lost a weapon or something, but it's been nine fucking years, you know? I think Dad'd kick his ass for him if he could." She blinked, finally turning away from the papers to look back at him, a vaguely sheepish expression on her face. "I'm rambling, aren't I?"

"I don't mind," he said truthfully, surprising her.

"Why not?"

Quite frankly, the fact that he was willing to sit there and listen to someone go on at length about several topics at once would amaze him – if this was anyone but Yuffie. Or possibly Cloud or Sora, or even Aerith, though he could in no way imagine her needing him to just sit there and listen unless the other three all randomly disappeared somehow. She was just as deeply frustrated as him, about many of the same things. Perhaps at the Academy he wouldn't have given himself a chance to get to know her, but they weren't there now. And a lot of what she was saying weirdly paralleled his own experiences. "You sound like you need to get it off your chest."

There was definitely some doubt in her look though, and she kept watching him. "Soooo… you _don't_ mind that I invaded your home, got your grandfather worked up, and then ran on for ten solid minutes about stuff that's not at all important to you."

"Yuffie." He sighed, raking a hand through his hair again to get it out of his eyes. "I don't say people are friends for no reason. I meant it."

"But we've only had one real conversation."

"That lasted for quite a long time."

"Yeah, but…" She sighed herself, with a bit of frustration, and shook her head. "You just don't seem like you do the 'friend' thing well."

Leon _had_ to laugh at the irony of that situation, a laugh that came out sounding sort of strangled and low, but was clearly a laugh of some sort, and was rewarded by Yuffie's look of complete shock at the fact that he _could_ laugh. "Yuffie, of the two of us, I've lived in this town a shorter amount of time and I still call more people 'friends' than you."

"I…" She trailed off, and Leon had a peculiar amount of self-satisfaction that he actually _could_ drive the words from her mouth. "Damnit."

And suddenly Leon had a spark of an idea – a very, very bizarre spark, one that could backfire and eat him alive if it so chose, but just might be worth the risk. He abruptly stood, causing the ninja to scramble to her feet while giving him an inquisitive expression – and he began pushing her towards the door, making her squawk. "Squall! What the hell are you doing!"

"You're giving me three minutes to take care of things here," he said, remembering the way he still had to look as he hadn't cleaned up when he first walked inside. "And then you're coming with me whether you want to or not." He quickly opened the door and pushed her through.

Yuffie stuck her foot in the doorway before he could close it again. "I'm coming with you _where?_"

"You're forcing me to socialize in my house. I'm forcing you to socialize in the world." And leaving her with that oblique promise (or threat), he finally got the door shut.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Squall, come on, what are you doing?" The ninja had to trot to keep up with his much longer strides, but she was still sticking with him. He'd half expected her to run off when they exited his building.

It had actually taken about five minutes for Leon to fix himself up a little and throw some leftover lasagna in the oven to warm, yelling back to Beck about the dinner and receiving a similar yell in reply. Yuffie had watched their exchange with confusion, then followed him out of the apartment and started asking questions. And she hadn't stopped as they crossed the First District, though Leon wasn't answering.

Feeling frustrated by his unresponsiveness, Yuffie changed tactics. "Shouldn't you be staying with your grandfather? I mean he could probably use help."

"If we're around each other too much, we'll kill each other," he finally answered. "He wants to be independent, and that means me not being there to help him. He can reach me if he needs to."

"How?"

"I have a phone," he said, pulling the small contraption from his jacket pocket for a moment. Yuffie was temporarily distracted and impressed; portable phones still hadn't really become a Traverse "normality." 

But the distraction only lasted for a moment. "Won't you even tell me where you're going?"

Squall finally stopped at the doors to the Third District, looking back at her. "Sora invited Cloud – and me – to his place tonight, but I turned it down. That's where we're going."

"_What!_" she practically screeched, voice sounding shrill even to her. "What are you _thinking!_"

"Revenge," he answered, and she could swear she heard a faintly triumphant note in his voice. "I told you, if you're going to make me socialize in my own space and get my grandfather excited, then I'm honor-bound to return the favor."

"But... But-"

"Yuffie, I'm not really going to make you go," he said with exasperation as he finally halted in the middle of the Third District square and turned to face her. "I'm not going to drag you kicking and screaming. That won't help anyone, least of all you or I. And if you ran off I couldn't catch you and we both know that. But do you remember what I said to you a few days before the Competition?"

_You're not supposed to be this angry. You know it and I know it._ His voice was all too clear in her mind. And it had been followed with, _Maybe you should ask yourself what you're_ really _angry about._ She'd refused to do that kind of inner soul-searching since then, but it had led to her asking Kairi that question… and to a strange sort of temporary truce with her stepsister that neither was quite sure what to make of. "Yeah?" she responded, folding her arms and trying not to give anything away.

"I know from Sora that you don't hate him. At the worst, you're ambivalent about Cloud. And obviously you don't hate me. If you're going to start coming out of whatever shell you've made for yourself, aren't we the best choices?"

She hated to admit how much sense he was making. But she wasn't meant to be _social_, she was meant to be- _It's like you're bound and determined to make everyone hate you_, Kairi's voice whispered from her overactive memory. _You're going to turn into this bitter old hag if you don't stop pissing everyone off on purpose and try and_ communicate!

Maybe being a bitter old hag wouldn't be so bad…

Who was she kidding, it would suck.

Leon continued, apparently sensing her wavering thoughts. "Think about it this way. When you go to the Academy, you'll have to talk with people. You'll have classes and roommates and instructors. Think of it as a dry run."

"What, _you_ talk to people at the Academy?"

"When I choose to," he replied calmly, ignoring the barb. "If it gets too uncomfortable, you can leave."

It was inevitable, and she knew it. Yuffie groaned, rubbing her face with her hands and shaking her head. After the brief spastic attack, she looked up into Squall's eyes with a look just as intense as his. "You _promise_ that I can leave if I want?"

"Yes. But I don't think it'll be as bad as you think." A muffled grumble was all she gave as she turned and continued the trek to Sora's place, having learned where he lived long ago from Kairi's chatter at dinner, and Squall followed behind her. "After all, we're all outsiders in this place."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Nothing, absolutely _nothing_ could have prepared Sora for the time when he would open his door to find Leon _and_ Yuffie standing outside as if it was the most natural thing in the world for them to be there. He was fairly sure he looked like an idiot; he knew his jaw dropped open, and his mind temporarily stopped working as he tried to process this incredibly strange sight.

"The invitation still open?" Leon asked in his usual stoic way, waiting for Sora to move, or speak, or… well, anything, really, which was exactly what Sora was _not_ doing. 

"Uhhh… yeah, sure, come on in." The younger boy finally found his voice and stepped back, watching as the two of them walked into the apartment. Now that he could actually think again, he noticed Yuffie looked distinctly nervous – well, as distinctly nervous as he thought she would allow herself to look. She didn't meet his eyes, instead glancing around her as if for some sort of escape, and Sora had to wonder exactly what she was doing here. "Dinner's …soon, come on."

Cloud was currently sprawled negligently over Sora's bed, video game controller in hand – they'd ended up at each other's places so often in the past month that it was no longer a surprise to any of their family members to find one camped at the other's apartment overnight, and the three adults in question had just sort of accepted it in gratitude that their sons were making friends. Thanks to this, Cloud had discovered a previously latent love of video games, especially the ones that let you beat things into the ground, and had taken to "stealing" Sora's system from him some nights since he didn't have one of his own. He'd taken advantage of Sora's pausing their fighting game to answer the door to give himself a bit of an unfair advantage (Sora was always beating him at these, and for once he wanted to win) – but when he saw who walked in behind his best friend he was shocked into dropping the controller into the pile of dirty laundry at the foot of Sora's bed.

"Umm… Guess who showed up," Sora said completely unnecessarily, seeing as Leon towered over the smaller boy much as Cloud himself did. But Leon wasn't the surprise – the small body, smaller than Sora, _behind_ Leon was.

"What're you playing?" Leon asked, nodding at the TV screen.

"_Cry of Blood 3_," Sora replied, noting how Cloud was staring at Yuffie as if she'd sprouted rabbit ears, and Yuffie was pointedly looking anywhere but at the blond. _We were friends, once_, he remembered Cloud saying during one of their marathon video game sessions. _Best friends, I guess you'd say – me and her and Riku. But things change._ Sora himself, the eternal optimist, had pretty much given up on Riku after their fight about Kairi – if Riku already didn't like him, as now seemed to be definite, even with the overtures of friendship that Sora had made, then Cloud certainly wasn't going to get suddenly reinstated as a "friend." Yuffie herself wasn't really nicer to Sora than she had been at first, but she _was_ less hostile, but Cloud's own feelings on the ninja were anything but positive except when it came to her fighting techniques.

If Sora was reading the facts right, neither one of them had actually even _tried_ to talk to the other after Cloud's accident, or at any time since then. Cloud blamed Yuffie's retreat, but the island boy was fairly certain Cloud had made a retreat of his own; certainly the isolation he'd been in until Sora showed up was mostly self-induced, as the others in the sword class at least respected him. Yuffie's attitude certainly hadn't done wonders for the relationship, but neither had Cloud's. Both of them had allowed their friendship to break, and now it was up to both of them – and only them – to try and put it back together again.

And he was pretty sure the gunblade wielder didn't know any of this. "Come with me, Leon, my mom wants to meet you."

"All right." Sora pretended to not see the brief look of unguarded panic the ninja sent his friend, nor the quick silent response that he couldn't read, and started out the door. Leon followed behind him, closing the door, and Sora immediately turned into the small bathroom next to his room, yanking Leon in behind him.

"Sora, what-"

"Shhhhh," he insisted quietly. "Rather'd not have so far to run if they decide to kill each other. That's _my_ room they're in, after all."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Yuffie briefly considered several plans to murder both Squall and Sora for leaving her alone with Cloud, discarding them all as unfeasible. Neither she nor Cloud said anything after the other two left, and neither of them moved; she could still feel him looking at her as she continued to watch the TV and the game now paused on the screen.

"…Yuffie," he said eventually.

"Cloud," she replied relatively neutrally.

It wasn't like they hadn't talked at all since the accident, but the talk they _had_ had was either in a situation having to do with combat, either the Competition or a bout their masters had set up for them, or one of the times she'd done something like jumping off a building. They hadn't had a _real_ talk in over four years, and they were both entirely different people now.

She'd completely forgotten about Squall's promise that she could leave if she wanted, though she was certainly wishing she could. She was beginning to recognize the feel of "inevitability" hanging around the two of them; it had started to stick with her a lot lately, in her dealings with Cid and her talks with Squall, though not as heavy as it was this time, nor as ominous. She had _no idea_ what to do.

Apparently he wasn't much better either. "Look, Yuffie…" Cloud trailed off, shaking his head a little. "Why are you here?"

"Sq- Leon dragged me." She remembered at the last moment to use "Leon." For some reason, "Squall" was her thing – well, hers and his grandfather's – and she wanted it to stay that way. "Said I needed to talk to someone besides him."

"…You've been talking… to Leon?"

She glared a little, feeling some of her usual temper flare up again at the disbelieving tone in his voice. "Is it really so hard to believe I'd talk to people?"

"…It's _him_."

"Yeah, true." She had to admit that Squall didn't exactly inspire friendly chats. Still not looking at him, she moved a little closer to the small TV set on Sora's dresser. "But he's not as bad as people say he is."

"I know, I see him nearly every day." Some noises came from behind her, and she knew Cloud had sat up from his prone position. "Look, Yuffie, I-"

"So are you finally gonna tell me?" she interrupted, the bitterness starting to come clear in her voice, keeping her back to him. "You finally gonna tell me why you just walked out on me then?"

Cloud sighed silently, seeing her hands curl into fists at her sides. Explanations… He hated explanations. He hated looking at the past, hated even more regretting what had happened in the past. It was in the past, behind you, over, done, so what good could it do? But now that the subject had been broached, he knew Yuffie wasn't going to walk out without an explanation of some sort. It was her way and always had been. "I… I thought no one wanted me around anymore."

"_What!_" He'd known she wouldn't like that, and he'd been right. "You… you _asshole!_" Very right. "You didn't even bother _trying!_ You just left the infirmary and walked out of all our lives and didn't return my phone calls or _anything_, you bastard!"

"I was fourteen and can you blame me, Yuffie, come on," he groaned, bending over to rest his forehead in his hand. "I walk out of the infirmary with this great clanking _thing_ on my arm and the first person I see is Riku and he completely boots me out of his life and so does the rest of his little crowd – which had been _our_ crowd too, remember? I thought those phone calls were the two of you trying to torment me."

"Well you were wrong," she said flatly, yelling spree temporarily over. The small ninja turned to face him at last, glaring fit to break a window, one fist planted on her hip and the other hand pointing straight at him. "I'd ditched Riku and his cronies before you even woke up, moron. Who in the hell do you think _found_ you, huh?"

"Yuffie, are you saying-"

"Yes! I heard your little 'bet' with Riku and I followed because I wanted some time alone with you but when I get there you've fallen through a skylight and gotten a mangled arm and are passed out in a pool of your own blood on the floor!"

"That was an _accident_-"

"Accident or not, you still would've died if I hadn't gotten Cid!"

Cloud shook his head. "The shop guys-"

"You had severed arteries, imbecile! Opening was eight hours away!"

And it certainly took much less time than eight hours for someone to bleed to death.

Yuffie continued once more, slightly calmer now that Cloud had stopped fighting the truth. "What in the hell do you expect, Cloud?" she asked, and he had to wonder if there was a faint note of fatigue in her voice. "You guys made that bet and after you get hurt they're all talking about how no one can know about it, and not _one_ of them says anything about being concerned for your health or wondering how you're doing. You thought I was gonna stick around with them after _that_?"

"I don't know," he replied quietly.

She was silent for another moment, and he could feel a slight – a _very_ slight, but it was there – draining of the tension between them, though there was still plenty around. "You knew me better than that, Cloud. Remember?"

"Yeah… I remember." It was something he hadn't thought about in years, and made very little difference to the person he was now. But it had still happened. "…It never could've lasted, not between us."

"Maybe it would've, if we were still those people. But we're not and it definitely wouldn't with us now."

"And I've got Aerith."

"And I swear to god if you treat her bad I am going to take your fuckin' balls off."

He just shook his head a little. "Still protective, huh?"

"I don't have much to be protective of, now."

"That just means you're even fiercer with what you do have."

"Maybe."

"Definitely."

They sank into silence again, but somehow… somehow Cloud felt slightly better. It was hard to pinpoint, even harder to really call it "better," but it definitely felt like something broken had been fixed. It was funny, really; since meeting Sora, his life had changed in many, many ways, but he still hadn't really faced his decisions from the past. There was no way he was going to be friends with Riku and that group again – the irony was that many of those original members had moved away since then – but this was the first real conversation he'd had with anyone about that night in many years, and it felt like it could be a step in the right direction.

Maybe he was more screwed up than he'd thought. But if he was, this was probably the way to fix himself – tracking down the knots that his accident had left in his personality, and pounding them out one by one, no matter how much it hurt to do it. It would be a long process, one that might not ever be finished, but he had the feeling it would be worth it. And the next step…

"Yuffie…" he began slowly, and she looked at him without that minor glare she'd been wearing before. "I… Thanks, all right?"

"For what?" she asked, a little warily.

"For saving my life… For smacking me over the head with that, 'cause I needed it." Cloud discounted the ninja's growing amazement as he continued. "And I'm sorry… I lumped you in with the rest, and even when I figured that you were as done with them as I was I didn't talk to you. You didn't deserve that, no matter what I'd been going through." A glance up at her showed her staring at him in shock. "I guess what I'm trying to say… Do you think we could call a truce?"

It took her a moment to find her voice again. "A truce?"

"Yeah… No more name-calling, no more ignoring or anger. 'Friends' is probably too much to ask right now, and I don't know how well we'd do at it anyway, 'cause it's us, after all, but at least we can stop making things worse for each other."

She was eyeing him like he'd suddenly turned green, and he couldn't blame her, but he thought he could see a hint of the old Yuffie humor from more than four years ago back in her eyes. Maybe. It was possible. "…I guess we could do that."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

It had been impossible for the other four in the apartment to not hear at least snatches of Yuffie and Cloud's long-delayed "talk," but tactfully none of them mentioned it. Yuffie sat down to her first dinner with people besides Cid and Kairi in years with the rest of them, and if she didn't talk much she wasn't projecting waves of hostility, either. Sora's mother was a bit surprised to be feeding six when she'd planned for four, but she wasn't dumb and a quick explanation from her son had straightened everything out. After eating, Cloud stayed behind to continue his "deathmatch tournament" with Sora, but Leon and Yuffie said goodbye.

"Was it as bad as you thought it would be?" Leon asked in the hall outside Sora's apartment.

"Yes," the ninja replied – but then, completely unexpectedly, she smiled, the first real smile he'd ever seen from her, and Leon was temporarily floored with just how _right_ that expression looked on her face, like the sun breaking through the clouds. "But it got better."

He quickly shook his head to rid it of the odd thoughts. "Good. For a moment there it sounded like you two were going to rip the apartment in half."

She winced a little. "That bad, huh?"

"Yeah. But don't worry about it." They'd finally come to the street before Leon asked the question that had been on his mind since the yelling began. "What happened with you two to make it so bad for both of you?" He definitely remembered hearing Cloud refer to Yuffie as a "bitch" at least twice, and the best Yuffie could say about him was that he wasn't as bad as some others, which probably meant Riku. He'd heard Cloud's side of it – but he had the feeling that he hadn't heard all of it. He couldn't blame Cloud, though; he knew all about not wanting to confess life stories.

Yuffie didn't respond right away, her mind caught between wanting to keep her old secrets and this new feeling of wanting to _tell_ someone her problems. Squall had been right; she didn't like personal questions, but he deserved an answer to them if anyone did, what with bringing her to Aerith, letting her pester him, and helping her with the Academy stuff… And, she realized, talking with Cloud at last had removed a weight of some sort from her shoulders. Who knew what telling Squall would do?

"He's told you about his accident, I take it," she said, making up her mind, and continuing when he nodded. "We were all part of a 'group' back then – me and him and Riku and we did almost everything together. And then somehow me and Cloud ended up dating. Not serious dating," she added at the look of complete shock on his face (which was actually highly amusing). "I was thirteen and he was fourteen, it was more like we did what we always did and once in awhile we'd kiss and that was it. Probably would've gone right back to being best friends in a year or so of growing up, but one day I come up and hear Riku and his supporters daring Cloud to sneak into the Gizmo Shop and do something, I was never sure what. I didn't tell him I'd heard, but it sounded like fun and we'd get to be together some more, so when I saw him leave I followed him, but he got there before me and ended up falling through a skylight directly onto a machine. By the time I got there he was unconscious and bleeding everywhere, and I raced back and got Cid, and Cid got him to the infirmary."

"And after he got out you all… went your separate ways?"

Yuffie gave an unladylike snort. "More like 'I nearly beat Riku to a pulp.' The infirmary staff wouldn't let me in to see Cloud, but I went to the group the day after, and the only thing any of them were saying was how no one could know it was _them_ that had dared Cloud to go in there. I was so pissed off I tackled him and gave him a black eye. It was before any of us started training, though Cloud and I began not long after, so Riku couldn't fight me off." Leon could well believe that; Yuffie was small enough to fight like a little wildcat when she was enraged. "So that was the end of that. Cloud didn't get out for several weeks, but when he did, with the arm Cid had built for him, I tried to get in touch with him and he never called back. He said tonight that he'd thought the calls were something Riku and I cooked up together to hound him, but they weren't, they were just me, and when _he_ disappeared from my life without reason I just got mad and gave up on everyone." She drew a deep breath and sighed, shaking her head. "That's it. Sounds like a really stupid reason to hate people, huh?"

"I wouldn't say that," he answered, making Yuffie look up at him in surprise. "You had a trauma and several major disappointments in a row, and lost your best friends in the process. I know the feeling myself."

"You had something…?"

"Something similar. Not that extreme, but something similar. Differences of opinion, but the effects were the same."

"We're just one messed-up lot, aren't we?"

"Yeah. But who knows, maybe one day we'll be able to look at all this and laugh."

Yuffie snorted again, this time suppressing a grin. "You, laugh. Now that I'd like to see."

"I laugh."

"Not much." The grin grew, and she raised one hand to poke him in the ribs, making him jump a little. "Be careful, I may end up tickling you after all."

Squall rubbed a hand over the place she'd poked. "Is that a promise or a threat?"

"Both."

He just shook his head. "Why do I get the feeling that you're going to be the death of me?"

"You're getting to know me, that's why." Yuffie was trying to ignore the little voice inside her head. _Go on, do it!_ it whispered _It can't hurt anything, now can it? Who cares if you've never done it before, come on!_

Yuffie didn't fight; it was easier to just go along with it. Leaning forward, she put both arms around Squall's torso and hugged him tightly, her head resting on his chest. "Thanks for making me go, Squall. I needed that."

Leon was, needless to say, entirely shocked by the ninja's actions. He froze in place, not at all sure what to do, and then gradually brought up his own arms to let one settle across her shoulders and the other pat her back awkwardly. "It's all right, Yuffie. You would've done it yourself eventually."

"No, I wouldn't have." She had friends again – and she had to admit that it was a nice feeling. Standing there with Squall, she could almost feel the beginnings of a support structure she'd been missing for years pull themselves back into place, but with different people this time – Aerith and Squall and Cid and yes, even possibly Kairi and Sora and Cloud. After four years of near-isolation, it was a startling, but welcome, feeling. "I would've just left Traverse and we'd've never talked again. He wouldn't have started anything, either. It would all just be left trailing in the wind."

"Well, it's not now." Yuffie was making no move to pull away, and Leon was gradually settling down from his initial surprise as well. Once the initial awkwardness had passed, which had been due mostly to unfamiliarity, it wasn't as uncomfortable as he'd thought it would be. It was actually kind of… nice was the only word for it, kind of nice to be depended on and trusted enough to allow this level of contact. It was something he hadn't had in awhile.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"That just doesn't _fit_…" Cloud said, peering through Sora's window at the two below. "That just… makes my brain hurt."

"What's so bad about it?" Sora countered, right next to him. They had long ago paused their game to spy on the two leaving the apartment. "Kairi and I hug. You and Aerith hug."

"But… that's… _Leon_ and _Yuffie_. They don't do the physical contact thing, especially not with each other."

Sora started to grin at Cloud's obvious brain-breakage, still watching the two below as they finally pulled apart and went their separate ways, Yuffie to her nearby apartment and Leon back to the First District. "Looks like you're wrong about that, Fluffy." He dodged a smack upside the head from his best friend and crashed back on his bed, grinning widely now. Things were going better than he'd ever dared to hope – he wasn't sure how, but they were. Maybe those two were exactly what they each needed to get good swift kicks out of their shells, and maybe not. But something was going on – now he just had to figure out what that something was.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Oh yeah, quite a lot of information out with this one, quite a lot of tangles exposed. Cid's history (why in the hell do I have this problem with killing Shera! First _Last Resort_, now here!), most of Yuffie's, the pieces of Cloud's accident he didn't know, the Clouffie-when-they-were-younger... Well, quite a bunch there. I had no intention of putting any of that in the chapter other than the Cid stuff, but the chapter had other ideas, and after trying to make it work the way I wanted I figured it was just easier to let it do what _it_ wanted.

Mini-contest! The first person to guess what the name "Charles" is in reference to gets a bishie plushie of their choice and a cookie.

Next time, we get some more Riku and some more SoKai and Clorith, because you know Riku's not gonna go away. Stay tuned!

Remember, **review replies are up in my livejournal!** Let me know what you think!


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